Whistleblowers on Fraud Facing Penalties

[gonerail]

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.

Rest at: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/...ap4052736.html
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All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Arthur Schopenhauer
German philosopher (1788 - 1860)

[Dumbfounded]

I am SHOCKED that this article made print in "Forbes." Stunned.

NO surprise that "honesty" is NEVER the best policy in these United States! No surpise that mafia-like reprisal and torment are the "rewards" for having a conscience.

And as with everything else our "full disclosure" government has spit at us, these corporate whistleblower incidents of abuse are-Another "tip of the iceberg" with over one thousand other cases of "tattle tales" getting pounded on by the playground bully or the U.S. government

I've no sympathy for the senators & congressmen that "don't put up a fight" with Bush out of fear-The "rubber stamp congress"

I've no sympathy for our government-controlled media who haven't practiced the courage & integrity journalists used to.

Remember the movie "The Inside" (Al Pacino, Russel Crowe)?

A top-level big tobacco executive revealed the secrets of biochemically engineered addiction practiced by the tobacco industry and was "rewarded" for his honesty by

1) The loss of his family (divorce)
2) Death threats and mockery
3) His career was over because he objected to big tobacco's practices (while employed by big tobacco)

And for all of the shocking revelations that the big tobacco settlement brought about, they're still thriving more than ever and Americans are still addictied to cigarettes.

Sooooooooooooo-

When you have whistleblowers or "tattletales" made "examples of" everyone else will keep their mouths shut, even if the secrets they're holding inside torment them.

Why lose your family, friends, money, future and peace of mind for being a "good guy/girl" when honesty is "rewarded" by torment and misery?

So the MORE "examples" made out of whistleblowers, the LESS truth the public will hear and the MORE government/corporations will get away with.

But that's the "American way" and "we're still the best country in the world!"

I understand greed but not at the price of human lives and suffering. EVER.

Sure. With all of the money coming out of Iraq, our U.S. troops ain't coming home for another decade or more.