Nog eens benadrukken dat whistleblowers hard aangepakt worden :
Washington Post enkele weken geleden :
LINK
Enkele quotes:
Dan L'Allier, a Kieger supervisor at the time, told The Associated Press he witnessed 45 tons of the New York loot being unloaded in Minnesota at his company's headquarters. He and a colleague, Chris Christopherson, complained to a company executive but were ordered to keep quiet.
They went instead to the FBI. The two whistleblowers eventually lost their jobs, received death threats and were blackballed in the disaster relief industry. But they remained convinced their sacrifice was worth it to make sure justice was done.
They were wrong.
Federal prosecutors eventually charged KEI and some executives with fraud for overbilling the government in several disasters, but excluded the Sept. 11 thefts. The company has gone out of business.
As a result, most Americans were kept in the dark for years about the fate of their donated goods, even as new requests for charity emerged for disasters like Hurricane Katrina. And Christopherson and L'Allier were left disillusioned.
"I wouldn't open my mouth again for all the tea in China," L'Allier said. Added Christopherson, a 34-year-old father of two:
"It's not worth blowing the whistle unless you don't have anything to lose."
The government ultimately gave the whistleblowers $30,000 each after expenses, their share in a civil settlement against KEI. They say the sum was hardly worth their trouble.
"We all experienced the death threats," L'Allier said. "We all experienced the phone ringing at three in the morning and no one being there. I'd come home and the house would be wide open."
Christopherson recalled receiving boxes of white T-shirts stolen from the Long Island warehouse,
sent back to him after KEI had embossed a Sept. 11 logo on the front. He was instructed by his boss to sell them to firefighters, police and volunteers for $12 apiece. He refused.
The lead investigators for the FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency told AP that the plan to prosecute KEI for those thefts stopped as soon as it became clear in late summer 2002 that an FBI agent in Minnesota had stolen a crystal globe from ground zero.
That prompted a broader review that ultimately found 16 government employees, including a top FBI executive and
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, had such artifacts from New York or the Pentagon.
"How could you secure an indictment?" FEMA investigator Kirk Beauchamp asked. "It would be a conflict."
While the globe's discovery had been widely reported, its impact on the Sept. 11 thefts had remained mostly unknown.
"It's a sad indictment of our justice system that they would let people go in order to cover up misconduct by federal employees, especially in a prestigious agency like the FBI," said Jane Turner, the lead FBI agent.
She too became a whistleblower alleging the bureau tried to fire her for bringing the stolen artifacts to light. Turner retired in 2003
Ultimately, the FBI donated the stolen goods found at KEI's warehouse to the Salvation Army.
Those who work near ground zero today are shocked to learn such thefts went unpunished.
"To take advantage of people at a time of despair, it's probably one of the worst things human beings can do to another person," said Gregory Broms, Sr., a firefighter with Engine Company 10 at the foot of the former World Trade Center site. "It was morally wrong."
The whistleblowers worry their fate might chill others from exposing wrongdoing.
"They felt they had to come forward about the theft because it was so wrong," Turner said. "I've lost my career. They've lost their jobs. The price is so high for telling the truth."
Deze mensen worden hard aangepakt, omwille van hun eerlijkheid. En dan gaat het 'maar' over de giften van het Amerikaanse volk, aan de hulpverleners.
Alles van waarde op ground zero werd op georganiseerde manier afgevoerd om later te verkopen of diensten te verlenen aan de betrokkenen.
Als ge hier een probleem van maakt, krijgt doodsbedreigingen en riskeert ge uw job of erger. Velen geven daarom toe te zwijgen en de omkoopsom te aanvaarden.
