Please Help! Ethics question?

I could use a little help on this guy’s we are to define the central ethical issue and distinguish the central issue from other ethical issue which I have found to be:
Danny has to decide between being an honest citizen working to expose any corruption within public service and keeping a steady well paying job and possibly his freedom.
I also have to give numerous supporting details and examples which are organized logically and coherently so far I have these details:
He is in a bind due to the fact that he knows that what is going on but cannot expose it in any way because if the story is in anyway leaked then all evidence points to him as the person who released the information.
But the fraudulent government contracts violate several federal laws and agency policies and because his responsibility is to watch for and report any illegal activity he may encounter this could be taken to someone higher by someone other than him and he would once again risk his job by not reporting illegal action.
Another issue of him not providing this information is If he were to leak the information he would be backed by media, the public, and possibly someone high enough to help Danny keep his job and not face federal crimes.
He could also try and go above his superiors and speak to someone that may acknowledge the situation and see that his superiors receive the proper disciplinary action which should possibly be termination.

Danny’s Decision

Terry R. Cross is an investigatory journalist with a respected Washington-area newspaper, Capitol News Briefly. As a reporter working in and around the D.C. area, Mr. Cross often relies on his long list of contacts in order to glean information that might be useful for the various articles he publishes on corruption within politics and government. Furthermore, a few of Mr. Cross’s key contacts are able to pass along hard-to-come-by information about questionable or even illegal actions taken by government employees or agencies.

One such contact is Danny Briar, a mid-level federal agency administrator. As a middleman of sorts, Danny is in a position uniquely suited to evaluating the actions of those who work both below and above him. One of Mr. Briar’s responsibilities is to watch for and report any illegal activity that he might encounter. Mr. Briar takes this role very seriously. His responsibilities as a watchdog were what originally led him to seek out Terry, a like-minded opponent of corruption within public service.

Mr. Briar has discovered that some individuals within his agency are working to cover up illegally-awarded, over-billed, or otherwise fraudulent government contracts awarded during the early months of the Iraq War. The actions of these individuals are in violation of several federal laws and agency policies. Upon presenting his discovery to his superiors, Mr. Briar was told to disregard his findings and to refrain from further discussing the subject. After pressing the matter, he was informed that the contracts in question had been deemed classified through appropriate agency and congressional channels. Moreover, because the contracts had been deemed to serve a compelling national security interest, it would be illegal to discuss them with anyone outside his agency.

Mr. Briar is fully aware that telling what he knows to Mr. Cross would violate laws regarding the disclosure of classified information. But it seems clear that no one within the government is willing to tell the truth about the fraudulent contracts. Without that, no one can be held accountable for their actions and there is little to prevent such fraud in the future. Getting the story to the news media seems to be the only way to make things right.

On the other hand, Mr. Briar has already alerted his coworkers and superiors with his questions. And others are aware of his relationship with Mr. Cross. If Cross writes a story about the fraudulent contracts and efforts to cover them up, Danny will be a prime suspect for the leak. It could easily cost him his job, but he could also be charged with federal crimes.

Thanks in advance everyone!!
If you don’t feel like reading it don’t answer the question its a waste of my time and yours