Coast Guard Employee Alleges Retaliation

[babylonsister]

Coast Guard Employee Alleges Retaliation
By Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post

Sunday 16 December 2007

Whistle-blower seeks probe of his charges against staff of DHS Inspector General.

A civilian U.S. Coast Guard employee was placed on paid administrative leave, threatened with a criminal investigation and confronted by guards at gunpoint in retaliation for disclosing information embarrassing to the service's troubled fleet replacement program, his attorney said.

Anthony D'Armiento, a former Northrop Grumman systems engineer working for the Coast Guard's acquisitions department, asked the Bush administration to appoint an independent inspector general to investigate his allegations against staff members of Richard L. Skinner, inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security. D'Armiento's attorney called their actions "an egregious act of intimidation and excessive force" against a government whistle-blower.

D'Armiento was placed on leave Oct. 1 and told to cooperate with Coast Guard investigators or face criminal prosecution, said Debra S. Katz, his attorney, in a letter to Skinner and the White House.

D'Armiento cooperated, but after he was told he could retrieve his office and home computers from Skinner's offices in Rosslyn on Oct. 29, Paul Weare, an investigator for the DHS inspector general, attempted to question D'Armiento. When D'Armiento refused to answer, three guards appeared, one pointed a gun at his chest, denied him his equipment and threatened him with arrest if he returned, Katz said.

"Mr. Weare was trying to lure Mr. D'Armiento to the OIG office where he could be further interrogated without his attorney present," Katz said in the letters, copies of which were obtained by The Washington Post. "This staged armed confrontation was an extreme and transparent act of retaliation against Mr. D'Armiento."

Skinner's office did not respond to repeated requests for a comment. A DHS official confirmed that D'Armiento is under investigation.

more...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121607Y.shtml

[Richard Steele]

1. Just another day under a government run by thieves and thugs. Grrrecommended

[annabanana]

2. The day is fast approaching

where every single "enforcement" officer will feel entitled to also fulfill the duties of judge, jury and executioner. - Anyone who's job description might include the carrying of a firearm, or any other kind of weapon will just assume that everyone has to obey them. . regardless of law or civil liberty.

"The Home of the Brave" was destroyed by the relentless fear-mongering, with a bomb strapped lunatic behind every tree.

"The Land of the Free" is disappearing behind a line of officers in SWAT gear, faces obscured.