Shame, shame

Government Retaliation USA

Whistleblowers continue to have a tough time in the us, despite a law protecting them. The latest victim is Bunnatine Greenhouse, the senior contracting officer for the us Army Corps of Engineers, who objected -- first internally, then publicly -- to a multi-billion dollar, no-bid contract with the Houston Texas-based, Halliburton company. In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the company had been hired to design a programme to extinguish oil fires the Pentagon believed retreating Iraqi troops would set. us rules forbid contractors hired to prepare plans from bidding for the work that grows out of these plans. But this was flouted to make things easy for Halliburton.

Carl Strock, commander of the Army Corps, said Greenhouse was removed from service because of poor performance. But her attorney, M D Kohn, says the army retaliated after Greenhouse went public with concerns over the volume of Iraq related work given to Halliburton.