WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — US Defense Department leaders are hardly motivated to investigate reprisals against whistleblowers because they want to dissuade personnel from exposing more wrongdoings, former US State Department Political Officer Matthew Hoh told Sputnik.
“The US Defense Department leadership has no incentive to protect whistleblowers against retaliation,” Hoh said on Friday. “In fact, they want to dissuade personnel from reporting on the military’s corruption, abuse, waste, immorality and incompetence.”
“US military leaders are not concerned about ensuring that people who are trying to tell the truth are going to be fairly represented, fairly treated and properly taken care of,” Hoh added.
The sheer size of the US military enterprise and the fact the US conducts operations around the world, Hoh argued, almost guarantee that something immoral, unethical and incompetent is happening somewhere on a daily basis.
“With troops occupying foreign countries, taking part in civil wars, launching drone strikes and providing weapons to all kinds of repressive regimes, of course the US military is going to have a real serious concern about the truth getting out,” Hoh concluded.
In 2013, the Defense Department failed to meet statutory military whistleblower reprisal notification requirements in about 50 percent of investigations, GAO said on Thursday.
