US Government, complicit in Iraq corruption, helps punish whistleblowers

Raw Story
Monday Aug 27, 2007

People who have brought war-related fraud and corruption to the attention of law enforcement suffer horribly as a result, reports the Associated Press Saturday.

The article profiles people who have filed lawsuits on behalf of the American taxpayer after witnessing misuse of funds and materials at the hands of private contractors. After blowing the whistle on his employer at the time, Shield Group Security Co., Navy Veteran Donald Vance, in his suit, says he and a colleague were held in an American military prison for over three months and subject to harsh interrogation tactics "reserved for terrorists and so-called enemy combatants."

Employees of the Federal Government and private military contractors are shown to have faced demotion, detention, shunning by colleagues, and a destroyed family life as consequences of reporting corruption.

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EXCERPTS:

“If you do it, you will be destroyed,” said William Weaver, professor of political science at the University of Texas-El Paso and senior advisor to the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.

“Reconstruction is so rife with corruption. Sometimes people ask me, ‘Should I do this?’ And my answer is no. If they’re married, they’ll lose their family. They will lose their jobs. They will lose everything,” Weaver said.

“The only way we can find out what is going on is for someone to come forward and let us know,” said Beth Daley of the Project on Government Oversight, an independent, nonprofit group that investigates corruption. “But when they do, the weight of the government comes down on them. The message is, ’Don’t blow the whistle or we’ll make your life hell.’

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The entire article can be read at MSNBC.com.