[Mb-civic] Woe to the whistleblowers - Thomas Oliphant - Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

Woe to the whistleblowers

By Thomas Oliphant  |  September 6, 2005

WASHINGTON
SUSAN WOOD and Bunnatine Greenhouse, senior government officials both, 
had nothing to do with Hurricane Katrina or the government's 
disgraceful, tardy response to its horrid aftermath.

But just as inevitably as civic collapse produces price gougers and 
looters, they are examples of what can go on when the nation's attention 
is diverted by catastrophe. What can go on is that bad people behave 
really badly, taking cowardly cover behind the explosion of other news.

Just as Katrina was being upgraded to a dangerous hurricane, Susan 
Wood's political bosses at the Food and Drug Administration decided to 
circumvent procedure and probably law to block approval of 
over-the-counter sales of the birth control medicine known as the 
morning-after pill. Their actions made the position of this public 
health official untenable and in an act of commendable integrity she 
resigned.

Just as Katrina was bearing down on the coast on that fateful Sunday, 
Bunnatine Greenhouse's bosses at the Army Corps of Engineers, with 
Donald Rumsfeld ultimately responsible, demoted her for raising 
objections to contracts awarded more than two years ago to a subsidiary 
of Halliburton Co. The retaliation against Greenhouse occurred even as 
the Corps' inspector general, together with officials from the Justice 
Department, was continuing an investigation into the contracts based on 
the information supplied by the very same Ms. Greenhouse.

As the infuriating aftermath of Katrina continues to unfold, President 
Bush's habit of not only avoiding responsibility but also attacking 
other government officials who tell the truth is worth keeping in mind. 
The habit was formed very, very early. Indeed, the first victim was none 
other than Mike Parker, a former Mississippi congressman who was fired 
from his senior position in the Corps after he had the guts to object in 
public to cutbacks in, of all things, flood control projects in his 
native region.

The abuse of Wood and Greenhouse was particularly ugly. In the former 
case, top FDA officials were following a time-dishonored cover-up ritual 
-- do a dirty deed on a Friday afternoon when it is least likely to get 
extensive news coverage, but do a really dirty deed when much bigger 
news is likely to provide weekend cover.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/09/06/woe_to_the_whistleblowers/
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