An engineer who worked at Lockheed Martin on a multi-billion dollar contract job with the US Coast Guard, is using YouTube to describe security flaws, after his complaints to his managers, congressmen, and government investigators were ignored.
From the Washington Post:
Posted three weeks ago, the video describes what De Kort says are blind spots in the ship's security cameras, equipment that malfunctions in cold weather and other problems. "It may be very hard for you to believe that our government and the largest defense contractor in the world [are] capable of such alarming incompetence and can make ethical compromises as glaring as what I am going to describe." In response to De Kort's charges, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said the service has "taken the appropriate level of action." A spokeswoman for the contractors said the allegations were without merit.
Now that the video has made the news, the people who can so something about it are finally getting their butts in gear.
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.
"I want to make sure that the product we paid for is a product that does not jeopardize our men and women in service," Thompson said.
