Blackwater and the Politics of Whistleblowing

[marmar]

from The American Prospect:



Blackwater and the Politics of Whistleblowing

The investigation into the now notorious Iraq contractor raises dire questions about where government whistleblowers can turn for protection.

Brian Beutler | October 5, 2007 | web only



It's hard to imagine a private mercenary business receiving any good press, but Blackwater USA might not have become the focus of such a large scandal if it had chosen a less menacing name. As it happens, it is now enmeshed in perhaps the largest oversight project of the 110th Congress -- one that raises questions not only about the rights of government whistleblowers, but about Congress' ability to protect them.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room teemed on Tuesday with one of Congress' busiest oversight hearings since the Democrats took power in January. Dozens of cameramen huddled in an erratic arc around the witness table. Print media writers crammed into the crowded audience. And the vast majority of guests were forced to watch the proceedings on a television feed in a different room altogether. We'd all come to watch Chairman Henry Waxman's promised whipping of the government's largest private military contractor, Blackwater, and its CEO, the wealthy former Navy SEAL Erik Prince. His company has been implicated in, among other travesties, shooting a security guard of the vice president of Iraq, instigating the bloody battle of Fallujah, and, most recently, a Sept. 16 massacre in Baghdad that resulted in the deaths of 17 Iraqis.

Most of the work Blackwater does in Iraq is contracted by the State Department, and typically, any inquiry into these events would fall to the department's inspector general, Howard Krongard.

But Waxman's committee has long been investigating that very office, as well. Recently, seven people working for Krongard alleged that Krongard himself had, in Waxman's words, "interfered with on-going investigations in order to protect the State Department and the White House from political embarrassment." Two of those whistleblowers -- former Assistant Inspector General for Investigations John DeDona and his erstwhile deputy Ralph McNamara -- resigned specifically because of Krongard's meddling.

How did Krongard respond? Allegedly by threatening to terminate anybody else who dared speak with congressional investigators. Two of his employees -- special agents Ron Militana and Brian Rubendall -- have agreed to speak publicly anyway. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=blackwater_and_the_politics_of_whistleblowing