Those who blow whistle on contractor fraud in Iraq face penalties

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: August 26, 2007 8:23:40 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Those who blow whistle on contractor fraud in  
Iraq face penalties

[Note:  This item comes from reader Ken DiPietro.  DLH]

From: "." <ken.dipietro () advantaq com>
Date: August 26, 2007 2:49:30 AM PDT
To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: Those who blow whistle on contractor fraud in Iraq face  
penalties

Those who blow whistle on contractor fraud in Iraq face penalties

DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP National Writer

August 24, 2007 12:24 PM

One after another, the men and women who have stepped forward to  
report corruption in the massive effort to rebuild Iraq have been  
vilified, fired and demoted.

Or worse.

For daring to report illegal arms sales, Navy veteran Donald Vance  
says he was imprisoned by the American military in a security  
compound outside Baghdad and subjected to harsh interrogation methods.

There were times, huddled on the floor in solitary confinement with  
that head-banging music blaring dawn to dusk and interrogators  
yelling the same questions over and over, that Vance began to wish he  
had just kept his mouth shut.

He had thought he was doing a good and noble thing when he started  
telling the FBI about the guns and the land mines and the rocket- 
launchers - all of them being sold for cash, no receipts necessary,  
he said. He told a federal agent the buyers were Iraqi insurgents,  
American soldiers, State Department workers, and Iraqi embassy and  
ministry employees.

The seller, he claimed, was the Iraqi-owned company he worked for,  
Shield Group Security Co.

''It was a Wal-Mart for guns,'' he says. ''It was all illegal and  
everyone knew it.''

So Vance says he blew the whistle, supplying photos and documents and  
other intelligence to an FBI agent in his hometown of Chicago because  
he didn't know whom to trust in Iraq.

For his trouble, he says, he got 97 days in Camp Cropper, an American  
military prison outside Baghdad that once held Saddam Hussein, and he  
was classified a security detainee.

Also held was colleague Nathan Ertel, who helped Vance gather  
evidence documenting the sales, according to a federal lawsuit both  
have filed in Chicago, alleging they were illegally imprisoned and  
subjected to physical and mental interrogation tactics ''reserved for  
terrorists and so-called enemy combatants.'' [snip]

The entire story can ve found here: <http://tinyurl.com/2c47m7>

The one question I have is, how far up the chain of command did the  
decision to charge these "whistleblowers" go? While I strongly doubt  
that this came from the White House, I am equally sure that these  
decisions were not made by some low level flunky in Iraq.

Of course, I fully expect to hear how the "liberal media" never  
prints any of the good news that is coming from Iraq or how the "Main  
Stream Media" is trying to "criminalize free enterprise" catapulted  
from the right wing, Big Lie machine.

These are interesting times that we live in.


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