POLITICS: Halliburton Critic Demoted by Army, page 1

posted on Aug, 29 2005 @ 10:33 AM

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Bunantine Greenhouse, a 60 year old black woman and the Pentagon's highest ranking civilian employee, has been demoted from her job as the chief overseer of contracts for the Army Corps of Engineers after questioning large no-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton for work in Iraq. Greenhouse, with twenty years of military procurement experience and high performance ratings prior to the war, was given a poor performance review and offered a much lower civil works position, or early retirement. She is fighting the decision as whistleblower retaliation.

www.vanityfair.com
The Spoils of War
By MICHAEL SHNAYERSON
Halliburton subsidiary KBR got $12 billion worth of exclusive contracts for work in Iraq. But even more shocking is how KBR spent some of the money. Former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official Bunnatine Greenhouse is blowing the whistle on the Dick Cheney–linked company's profits of war
This time, she was sure, they were going to get her.

Bunnatine Greenhouse had been a huge nuisance since the buildup to the war in Iraq—questioning contracts, writing caveats on them in her spidery script, wanting to know why Halliburton and its subsidiary KBR (formerly known as Kellogg, Brown and Root) should be thrown billions of dollars of government business while other companies, big and small, were shut out.

And Bunny Greenhouse wasn't that easy to ignore: she was the highest-ranking civilian at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Specifically, she was the officer in charge of ensuring that any work contracted out by the Army Corps to private industry—from help in building bridges and dams and highways to support for wartime troops—was granted in a fair and aboveboard way. For two years, Greenhouse had asked hard questions about why the head of the Corps, to whom she reported directly, kept giving exclusive, non-compete contracts to KBR that now amounted to roughly $10.8 billion. Greenhouse was fearless, and she was blunt. In the Corps's male hierarchy, it probably didn't help that she was a woman—or that she was black.

On October 6, 2004, Greenhouse was summoned by the Corps's deputy commander, Major General Robert Griffin. She knew that the top brass was eager to finalize the Corps's latest contract for KBR, a $75 million extension for troop support in the Balkans. Already it had gone through several drafts, mostly because Greenhouse kept questioning the rationale for giving it to KBR without competitive bidding. What she didn't know was that her superiors had closed ranks against her.

When Greenhouse entered the general's office, he handed her a letter that explained she was being demoted for poor performance—a curious indictment, given that she'd received high performance ratings before the war. The demotion would knock her down to the government rank of GS-15. That was like going from senior vice president in a Fortune 500 company to middle management. She could retire instead with full benefits if she liked, the letter went on to say. She was, after all, 60.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Michael Kohn, Greenhouse's lawyer, is calling the demotion an "obvious reprisal". It sure looks that way to me, too. This lady is just trying to do her job, as she has for twenty years, reviewing contracts for viability and due process. When she saw the discrepancies with the Halliburton and KBR contracts, she spoke out, doing her job. Now she is being censured for it. She is being scape-goated for pointing out that Halliburton and KBR are receiving special treatment.

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Haliburton Hearing? Feeding our troops expired food?

Rikimaru

posted on Aug, 29 2005 @ 10:43 AM

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I might agree with her, but employers have the right to terminate employees for any reason.

Passer By

posted on Aug, 29 2005 @ 10:56 AM

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You can't be fired for refusing to work in unsafe environments - you can't be fired for refusing to break the law.

This is just another example of how corrupt the US government really is. But this too will get swept under the carpet by oddles of disinformation, and parrott's screaching about tangentally involved items to confuse and deflect any critism of the government, or mor importantly to them, their part of the government.

Conspicuouz

posted on Aug, 29 2005 @ 10:58 AM

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this is quite sad but it is how the army works.
fall in rank or get ironed over and she's a prime example.

glad to see there was someone internally questioning this, guess they are ironing out all the kinks. when you have an agenda, you don't want anyone questioning it and asking for answers you don't want to tell.

thematrix

posted on Aug, 29 2005 @ 11:58 AM

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Anyone ever wondered about this?

Dick Cheney: long time connections with "Kellogg, Brown and Root" aka KBR and Haliburton.
Bush Family: long time connections with "Brown Brothers and Harriman" and "Asea Brown Boveri Ltd" aka ABB
Rummsfeld: long time connections with "Asea Brown Boveri Ltd" aka ABB and Haliburton and Monsanto.

It all looks kinda Brown to me ...

The more you dig the more you find out that the big company's like ABB, KBR, Halliburton and Monsanto, who are connected to Bush, Rummsfeld, Cheney and a bulkload of other people in the Bush administration, are all named in even more cases concerning irregularities with handing outs of contracts, missing money, less then quality products(Aspartama, Nutrasweet, Monsanto GM foods and products) and outragious lawsuits(that they actualy win, like Monsanto sueing farmers for technology theft by reseeding)

I wonder why people don't see whats going on in that administration.

Passer By

posted on Aug, 29 2005 @ 12:22 PM

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Why don't people see it?

IMO because they don't beleive it can happen to them. These stories are something of sci-fi, bad plans, by bad people don't happen to America. America is the one that saves people. It is a mindset that has been driven into 300 million people.

There are those that feel the way things are going is merely an effect of some cause, but often refuse to look at what caused the cause.

Others feel that the way things are going is because of power mad people, but this plan has been waged for too long to be merley ego for a man, or even groups of men. It is obvious that the differences between Republican and Democrate Stateside is of superficial means only - so then the question is who is bringing this new state of America and for what means?

soficrow

posted on Aug, 29 2005 @ 01:13 PM

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We need people like Greenhouse.

Boy, do we ever. ...Most administrations conduct some questionable business, but they at least try to feed the illusion that everything's above board. Now, the graft is right out front, no apologies. And people defend it. Hmmm.

mulberryblueshimmer

posted on Aug, 30 2005 @ 09:28 AM

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Originally posted by Rikimaru
I might agree with her, but employers have the right to terminate employees for any reason.

No they do NOT! That is absolutely the kind of thinking that allows employers to terminate without good reason and gets people to accept that. Employers cannot terminate you for refusing to work un obviously unsafe conditions or for refusing to break laws on their behalf.

Kudos for her for standing up for this in the first place.

AlwaysLearning

posted on Aug, 30 2005 @ 10:38 AM

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Originally posted by soficrow
We need people like Greenhouse.

Boy, do we ever. ...Most administrations conduct some questionable business, but they at least try to feed the illusion that everything's above board. Now, the graft is right out front, no apologies. And people defend it. Hmmm.

What happened to all that talk about whistleblowers being protected. Just more lipservice from BushCo. I guess.

This is outrageous! I hope Greenhouse takes this as far as it will go.

You go, girl!

kenshiro2012

posted on Aug, 30 2005 @ 10:56 AM

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I have just finished reading the article and I am a bit more than a little suspicious of Greenhouse. Reading the timelines as provided by the Vanity Fair article it looks to me of a case of the "irate ex-employee" than a case of a demoting / firing a whistleblower.
To fall into the category of whistleblower, she would have to have provided more evidence than just her word "on it" which according to the article she does not have. There is a lot of inuendo and supposition that she has put together which makes even some of the most diehard conspiracy theorists look like ameteurs.
What really broke the camel's back on my trying to believe her story is that she is also trying to play the black female card. That there is enough for me to question the reality of her claims. She may actually have a case but with the information provided by the article and her playing the race card along side of her claims really lowers her credibility.

soficrow

posted on Aug, 30 2005 @ 01:28 PM

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Originally posted by kenshiro2012

To fall into the category of whistleblower, she would have to have provided more evidence than just her word "on it" which according to the article she does not have.

Odd. ATS is chock full of references and instances showing Halliburton was awarded contracts without bidding on them or under other suspicious circumstances. This site is a GREAT resource - you might want to use it.

cyberdude78

posted on Aug, 30 2005 @ 06:38 PM

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Well I'm not going to draw any final conclusions seing as I haven't seen her actual review.

But I'll quickly acknowledge that this is extremely fishy and deserves a lot of investigation. I'm not entirely certain on whats been going on, but nearest I can tell; some really weird financial stuff has had Halliburton's name on it. And it's not like much of the Bush administration doesn't have connections with them.

jebb bush

posted on Sep, 3 2005 @ 08:17 PM

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Isn't it interesting that they have given the extensive rebuild the gulf contract to KBR, no questions asked. Off shore rigs, refineries, bridges, roadways, ect.

kenshiro2012

posted on Sep, 7 2005 @ 02:09 PM

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soficrow

Odd. ATS is chock full of references and instances showing Halliburton was awarded contracts without bidding on them or under other suspicious circumstances. This site is a GREAT resource - you might want to use it.

I am aware of the various postings here

As I stated in my post, Reading the timelines as provided by the Vanity Fair article it looks to me of a case of the "irate ex-employee" than a case of a demoting / firing a whistleblower. Thus I was referencing the information that the article contained. From the material that was provided by the article, Ms. Greenhouse sounds like she maybe just a person who is ticked off for being demoted. She also seems to be one who maybe playing on the bad press that the goverment and Halliburton have been getting in order to legitimize her case.
As I stated, according to the article, she has no proof, not collaborating facts, or witnesses (including her secretary) etc. All she has is her hurt feelings at being demoted. She then surther weakens her case by playing the race card. If what she has been telling Vanity Fair had any substance to it, she would never had played that overused card.

marg6043

posted on Sep, 7 2005 @ 03:03 PM

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Well now everybody knows how our corporate ridden government works.

And for those that now are catching up never to late to open your eyes to the corporate corruption in the white house.