Former CIA Officer Describes Retribution for Whistle Blowing
By Jeff Stein | February 19, 2009 6:44 PM
Ilana Sara Greenstein, a highly praised CIA operations officer for six years until quitting in disgust in 2008, says she was punished for complaining about gross mismanagement in the agency's Baghdad station, which CIA censors are still trying to suppress.
"What I witnessed there was nothing short of disastrous--operationally and ethically," says Greenstein, who in 2005 was cited by the U.S. military command in Baghdad for work that "directly saved lives"--the only CIA staff employee to be so honored.
Greenstein's complaints about Baghdad station not only went unanswered, she alleges, she was punished by CIA managers whom she had singled out for criticism. And now, CIA censors are trying to suppress a book she is writing about her experience, she says.
Greenstein, who also won six CIA "exceptional performance" awards and had previously worked for the Department of Defense in Bosnia and England, was in law school when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. Motivated by a desire to serve her country again, she joined the CIA in 2002.
But she grew increasingly disenchanted with the spy agency, first during training, then a stint at headquarters, and then in Baghdad, where she alleges that discipline was lax, alcoholism common, debauchery rampant, and successful operations rare.
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