VIDEO: Whistleblower uses YouTube to tell his story

RAW STORYPublished: Tuesday August 29, 2006

An article in this morning's Washington Post reveals that for the first known time, a whistleblower working on a US Government contract has posted a video on YouTube making his case about a problem inside government. RAW STORY has located the video referred to in the Post article and made it available here.

The Washington Post story tells the case of Michael De Kort, an engineer for Lockheed Martin, who worked on a US Coast Guard contract to replace the patrol boats used by the service. The contract is worth billions of dollars. In the video, De Kort, a 41-year old, fails to give his name, but commented in an interview after being contacted by the Post.

The Washington Post notes that De Kort appears to be the only known whistleblower to use YouTube to date. Nonetheless, they add "The video also has caught the eye of people in high places. De Kort's video has been covered by defense trade magazines, and yesterday, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, wrote a letter to the Coast Guard asking for an answer to De Kort's "extremely distressing" allegations."

The video is provided by RAW STORY and can be viewed below. The full Washington Post story is available at the paper's website.