Violence Against the Truth

The label "whistleblower" has negative connotations for many: they think it means "snitch," "tattle tell," or "traitor."  But these are meanings propagated by those afraid of being exposed, afraid of the truth.  By telling people that they are disloyal to the team if they speak up, the wrongdoers hope to keep the truth pent up by conflicting loyalties.  "I know this is wrong, but what would my boss, my co-workers think if I told others..."

This is not the way it should be. When higher loyalties call –  namely, duty to the public – workers should always be free to communicate problems without fear of retaliation, be it ostracization, demotion, being fired, or worse.  And they should not be threatened and physically attacked. But whistleblowers are truly the patriotic ones despite the myths, because they face metaphorical violence of all sorts – verbal, emotional, occupational – and, rarely, even "real" violence as well.

Which is what happened to Los Alamos National Laboratory auditor Tommy Hook this weekend.

On Saturday night Hook went to a Santa Fe bar to meet a person claiming to be a fellow Los Alamos whistleblower that called that night.  When the person did not show, Hook left the bar after two drinks.  In the parking lot he was pulled out of his car and beaten so badly by 3 or 4 men that he had to be taken to intensive care.  Hook did not provoke these men.  The men concentrated on kicking his head, and Hook's family thinks the men would have killed him if it hadn’t been for the witness who had just walked out of the bar.

The men didn’t try to take Hook's wallet, his watch or his car; they just told him to keep his mouth shut if he knows what's good for him.  Tommy Hook was expected to testify before Congress this month (and talk to a congressional investigator this Tuesday--tomorrow) on possible fraud at Los Alamos (scroll to the bottom of this link for info on Hook). Welcome to the reality of whistleblowing.

Comments

[Elefio Montoya]

It sure looks like Hooks lied to the authorities. What a shock!

http://www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=storyviewer&id=19754&cat=HOME

POGO what's the 441 on this? The newspapers can't be trusted and the TV stations are a joke. There are so many rumors going on out here. We're looking to you for an update on what's really going on. You know something. Share it with us.

[Losing Patience]

Hey Elifio Chill,
You want to speculate and ask questions fine. But, I doubt POGO's going to put up with your tone and offensive language much longer. If they cut you off that's fine, but if they take down this entire section because you're being a jerk that would be a shame for those of us hoping to find out what's really going on around here. Would you feel comfortable if your mother, sister, wife or daughter read your comments? If not, why are you subjecting mine to your crap. If yes, do they work at Cheeks? You want to scream about Tommy Hook, bring it on. We may just find out Tommy's lieing. Just be an adult.

We're supposed to all be scientist are we not? As such I think this calls for a quote from the greatest egg head of all time -- Einstein. Great spirits will always be met with violence from people with mediocre minds.

[Elefio Montoya]

Welcome to the realities of going to a titty bar, paying for a lap dance, getting beat up in the parking lot, and making up a story so your out-of-town wife doesn't know what you actually did.

http://www.krqe.com/expanded.asp?ID=10390

"'This individual was telling me I should keep my F-in mouth shut. And I immediately jumped to the lavatory when he said that that he was trying to keep me from not having me not talk in front of congress,' said Hook in an interview with CBS News."

So this all started in a bathroom now? That's different than the initial story.

"A dancer at the club says she recognized Hook as the same man who got a lap dance from a waitress the night of the beating."

Hmm. Curious and curiouser. Law enforcement is going to have a field day with this.

This is a possibility from the LANL blog:

"I suspect that the beating was carried out by one of the contractors or suppliers of goods to LANL who had been making windfall profits from bad business practices at LANL. These guys would have eventually been identified via the Congressional hearings [because Hook was trying to bring to light fraud]."

I seriously doubt anyone would have the living crap beaten out of them for the maybe slight chance it would improve their court case. The guy could have been killed, c'mon. This week was his 30th wedding anniversary. Why would you ruin that when you could wait another week?

[Skip Smith]

I can think of 4 possible series of events that led to Tommy Hook being beat up in the parking lot of a topless bar:

(1) This is a conspiracy by the University of California to silence Tommy Hooks. Of course, he's already scheduled to testify before Congress, and he's been complaining since 1997, but for whatever reason they decided now was the time to strike.

(2) Tommy went out for a drink at the topless bar, some Los Alamos people recognized him, and they beat the crap out of him.

(3) Tommy went out for a drink at the topless bar, touched some boobies, and the bouncers beat the crap out of him.

(4) Tommy set the atack up himself to make the UC system look bad, make himself look like a hero, and possibly win a pile of money in a lawsuit.

Discuss.

[Steve Smith]

I've known Tommy for well over 10 years. He's a straight-shooter. He has shown incredible integrity at all levels against all odds. The stakes just got raised. I don't know what happened Saturday night but I know it wasn't good.

Whether it was intended to intimidate him out of his testimony or to accentuate his testimony, the people involved are wretched excuses for human beings, from the thugs who jumped him to whomever might have orchestrated it, to those who would opportunistically try to spin this to support their own agenda.

I appreciate POGO's editors trying to moderate the tone of the responses here. Yes, these are human lives, Tommy and his family and all of the other folks in the community whose livelihoods and perhaps (now) lives are at risk.

While many of you might legitimately question the nature of the work that Los Alamos does and the potential risk implied by any shortcomings or mistakes, I hope you recognize that we are people just like you and moments like this one, or just a month ago when Todd Kaupilla died, are a good time to reflect on our shared humanity, not on our differences.

[POGO]

To our Readers:

As always, we want to encourage dialogue and dissenting views, but we also want to urge that you have respect for people. The beating of Tommy Hook is not to be taken lightly. There are facts in this case, and there are leads that need to be investigated. However, we are not going to respond to cheap and tawdry questions and we will not tolerate personal attacks. POGO is looking for the truth, and we encourage our readers to do so as well. What we all should be doing is trying to get to the bottom of this cowardly crime.

--POGO--

Mr. Montoya,
Here's a question for you, your email address is lanlsucks, yet why are you such and apologist for them? If Mr. Hook's info is legit then you only have to worry if you're guilty. Otherwise, it seems like the dude's in the hospital and you want to call him a liar. Nice culture they have growing at the lab.

[Elefio Montoya]

This story STINKS. Something is not right.

Let's forget for a moment that Chuck Montano has made a habit of suing LANL. In fact, he didn't uncover accounting "fraud" at LANL until after he'd already sued LANL for discriminating against Hispanics. But let's leave that aside and look at the story of Tommy Hook.

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/apwhistle06-06-05.htm

http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2005/06/violence_agains.html

Something about this story is not right.

A guy goes to a strip club in the middle of the night to get "information" about accounting fraud.

He goes into the bar, has two drinks, and leaves.

The thugs don't touch him while he's in the parking lot, completely defenseless. They wait until he's in his car and almost able to get away before attacking him.

Nobody sees the incident until the very end, even though it happens in the parking lot of a crowded bar.

And, oddly enough, POGO seems to have far more details than those available in the newspapers are on the local news stations.

Time for a few questions:

Who goes to a titty bar in the middle of the night to get "information" about accounting fraud?

Why would the thugs wait for Mr. Hook to get back in his car before they beat him up?

Why would thugs who wanted to keep him quiet not kill him?

We're all New Mexicans here. How many shootings do we have in this state every year? If the thugs wanted to kill Mr. Hook, as is asserted by POGO, they would have shot him, and it wouldn't have been done in front of a bar for everyone to see.

This whole incident sounds like it was set up by somebody who's been watching a little too much Sopranos lately.

Something is very, very wrong with this story.

I think Chuck Montano and his AFSCME union thugs are responsible for this. Seriously, who other than unions pulls stunts like this?

And Mr. Montano needs to explain why all of this accounting fraud wasn't "uncovered" until he sued LANL for discrimination.