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DynCorp Disgrace
Posted Jan. 14, 2002
By Kelly Patricia O Meara
Americans were seen in Bosnia as
defenders of the children,
as shown here, until U.S.
contractors began buying children as personal sex slaves.
Middle-aged men having sex with 12- to 15-year-olds was too much for
Ben Johnston, a hulking 6-foot-5-inch Texan, and more than a year ago
he blew the whistle on his employer, DynCorp, a U.S. contracting
company doing business in Bosnia.
According to the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act (RICO)
lawsuit filed in Texas on behalf of the former DynCorp aircraft
mechanic, "in the latter part of 1999 Johnston learned that employees
and supervisors from DynCorp were engaging in perverse, illegal and
inhumane behavior [and] were purchasing illegal weapons, women, forged
passports and [participating in] other immoral acts. Johnston witnessed
coworkers and supervisors literally buying and selling women for their
own personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various ages
and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased."
Rather than acknowledge and reward Johnston's effort to get this
behavior stopped, DynCorp fired him, forcing him into protective
custody by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) until
the investigators could get him safely out of Kosovo and returned to
the United States. That departure from the war-torn country was a far
cry from what Johnston imagined a year earlier when he arrived in
Bosnia to begin a three-year U.S. Air Force contract with DynCorp as an
aircraft-maintenance technician for Apache and Blackhawk helicopters.
For more than 50 years DynCorp, based in Reston, Va., has been a
worldwide force providing maintenance support to the U.S. military
through contract field teams (CFTs). As one of the federal government's
top 25 contractors, DynCorp has received nearly $1 billion since 1995
for these services and has deployed 181 personnel to Bosnia during the
last six years. Although DynCorp long has been respected for such work,
according to Johnston and internal DynCorp communications it appears
that extracurricular sexcapades on the part of its employees were
tolerated by some as part of its business in Bosnia.
But DynCorp was nervous. For instance, an internal e-mail from DynCorp
employee Darrin Mills, who apparently was sent to Bosnia to look into
reported problems, said, "I met with Col. Braun [a base supervisor]
yesterday. He is very concerned about the CID investigation; however,
he views it mostly as a DynCorp problem. What he wanted to talk about
most was how I am going to fix the maintenance problems here and how
the investigation is going to impact our ability to fix his airplanes."
The Mills e-mail continued: "The first thing he told me is that 'they
are tired of having smoke blown up their ass.' They don't want anymore
empty promises."
An e-mail from Dyncorp's Bosnia site supervisor, John Hirtz (later
fired for alleged sexual indiscretions), explains DynCorp's position in
Bosnia. "The bottom line is that DynCorp has taken what used to be a
real positive program that has very high visibility with every Army
unit in the world and turned it into a bag of worms. Poor quality was
the major issue."
Johnston was on the ground and saw firsthand what the military was
complaining about. "My main problem," he explains, "was [sexual
misbehavior] with the kids, but I wasn't too happy with them ripping
off the government, either. DynCorp is just as immoral and elite as
possible, and any rule they can break they do. There was this one guy
who would hide parts so we would have to wait for parts and, when the
military would question why it was taking so long, he'd pull out the
part and say 'Hey, you need to install this.' They'd have us replace
windows in helicopters that weren't bad just to get paid. They had one
kid, James Harlin, over there who was right out of high school and he
didn't even know the names and purposes of the basic tools. Soldiers
that are paid $18,000 a year know more than this kid, but this is the
way they [DynCorp] grease their pockets. What they say in Bosnia is
that DynCorp just needs a warm body — that's the DynCorp
slogan. Even if you don't do an eight-hour day, they'll sign you in for
it because that's how they bill the government. It's a total fraud."
Remember, Johnston was fired by this company. He laughs bitterly
recalling the work habits of a DynCorp employee in Bosnia who "weighed
400 pounds and would stick cheeseburgers in his pockets and eat them
while he worked. The problem was he would literally fall asleep every
five minutes. One time he fell asleep with a torch in his hand and
burned a hole through the plastic on an aircraft." This same man,
according to Johnston, "owned a girl who couldn't have been more than
14 years old. It's a sick sight anyway to see any grown man [having
sex] with a child, but to see some 45-year-old man who weighs 400
pounds with a little girl, it just makes you sick." It is precisely
these allegations that Johnston believes got him fired.
Johnston reports that he had been in Bosnia only a few days when he
became aware of misbehavior in which many of his DynCorp colleagues
were involved. He tells INSIGHT, "I noticed there were problems as soon
as I got there, and I tried to be covert because I knew it was a
rougher crowd than I'd ever dealt with. It's not like I don't drink or
anything, but DynCorp employees would come to work drunk. A DynCorp van
would pick us up every morning and you could smell the alcohol on them.
There were big-time drinking issues. I always told these guys what I
thought of what they were doing, and I guess they just thought I was a
self-righteous fool or something, but I didn't care what they thought."
The mix of drunkenness and working on multimillion-dollar aircraft upon
which the lives of U.S. military personnel depended was a serious
enough issue, but Johnston drew the line when it came to buying young
girls and women as sex slaves. "I heard talk about the prostitution
right away, but it took some time before I understood that they were
buying these girls. I'd tell them that it was wrong and that it was no
different than slavery — that you can't buy women. But they'd
buy the women's passports and they [then] owned them and would sell
them to each other."
"At first," explains Johnston, "I just told the guys it was wrong. Then
I went to my supervisors, including John Hirtz, although at the time I
didn't realize how deep into it he was. Later I learned that he had
videotaped himself having sex with two girls and CID has that video as
evidence. Hirtz is the guy who would take new employees to the brothels
and set them up so he got his women free. The Serbian mafia would give
Hirtz the women free and, when one of the guys was leaving the country,
Hirtz would go to the mafia and make sure that the guys didn't owe them
any money."
"None of the girls," continues Johnston, "were from Bosnia. They were
from Russia, Romania and other places, and they were imported in by
DynCorp and the Serbian mafia. These guys would say 'I gotta go to
Serbia this weekend to pick up three girls.' They talk about it and
brag about how much they pay for them — usually between $600
and $800. In fact, there was this one guy who had to be 60 years old
who had a girl who couldn't have been 14. DynCorp leadership was 100
percent in bed with the mafia over there. I didn't get any results from
talking to DynCorp officials, so I went to Army CID and I drove around
with them, pointing out everyone's houses who owned women and weapons."
That's when Johnston's life took a dramatic turn.
On June 2, 2000, members of the 48th Military Police Detachment
conducted a sting on the DynCorp hangar at Comanche Base Camp, one of
two U.S. bases in Bosnia, and all DynCorp personnel were detained for
questioning. CID spent several weeks working the investigation and the
results appear to support Johnston's allegations. For example,
according to DynCorp employee Kevin Werner's sworn statement to CID,
"during my last six months I have come to know a man we call 'Debeli,'
which is Bosnian for fat boy. He is the operator of a nightclub by the
name of Harley's that offers prostitution. Women are sold hourly,
nightly or permanently."
Werner admitted to having purchased a woman to get her out of
prostitution and named other DynCorp employees who also had paid to own
women. He further admitted to having purchased weapons (against the law
in Bosnia) and it was Werner who turned over to CID the videotape made
by Hirtz. Werner apparently intended to use the video as leverage in
the event that Hirtz decided to fire him. Werner tells CID, "I told him
[Hirtz] I had a copy and that all I wanted was to be treated fairly. If
I was going to be fired or laid off, I wanted it to be because of my
work performance and not because he was not happy with me."
According to Hirtz's own sworn statement to CID, there appears to be
little doubt that he did indeed rape one of the girls with whom he is
shown having sexual intercourse in his homemade video.
CID: Did you have sexual intercourse with the second woman on the tape?
Hirtz: Yes
CID: Did you have intercourse with the second woman after she said "no"
to you?
Hirtz: I don't recall her saying that. I don't think it was her saying
"no."
CID: Who do you think said "no"?
Hirtz: I don't know.
CID: According to what you witnessed on the videotape played for you in
which you were having sexual intercourse with the second woman, did you
have sexual intercourse with the second woman after she said "no" to
you?
Hirtz: Yes.
CID: Did you know you were being videotaped?
Hirtz: Yes. I set it up.
CID: Did you know it is wrong to force yourself upon someone without
their consent?
Hirtz: Yes.
The CID agents did not ask any of the men involved what the ages of the
"women" were who had been purchased or used for prostitution. According
to CID, which sought guidance from the Office of the Staff Judge
Advocate in Bosnia, "under the Dayton Peace Accord, the contractors
were protected from Bosnian law which did not apply to them. They knew
of no [U.S.] federal laws that would apply to these individuals at this
time."
However, CID took another look and, according to the investigation
report, under Paragraph 5 of the NATO Agreement Between the Republic of
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia regarding the status of NATO and its
personnel, contractors "were not immune from local prosecution if the
acts were committed outside the scope of their official duties."
Incredibly, the CID case was closed in June 2000 and turned over to the
Bosnian authorities. DynCorp says it conducted its own investigation,
and Hirtz and Werner were fired by DynCorp and returned to the United
States but were not prosecuted. Experts in slave trafficking aren't
buying the CID's interpretation of the law.
Widney Brown, an advocate for Human Rights Watch, tells INSIGHT "our
government has an obligation to tell these companies that this behavior
is wrong and they will be held accountable. They should be sending a
clear message that it won't be tolerated. One would hope that these
people wouldn't need to be told that they can't buy women, but you have
to start off by laying the ground rules. Rape is a crime in any
jurisdiction and there should not be impunity for anyone. Firing
someone is not sufficient punishment. This is a very distressing story
— especially when you think that these people and
organizations are going into these countries to try and make it better,
to restore a rule of law and some civility."
Christine Dolan, founder of the International Humanitarian Campaign
Against the Exploitation of Children, a Washington-based nonprofit
organization, tells Insight: "What is surprising to me is that Dyncorp
has kept this contract. The U.S. says it wants to eradicate trafficking
of people, has established an office in the State Department for this
purpose, and yet neither State nor the government-contracting
authorities have stepped in and done an investigation of this matter."
Dolan says, "It's not just Americans who are participating in these
illegal acts. But what makes this more egregious for the U.S. is that
our purpose in those regions is to restore some sense of civility. Now
you've got employees of U.S. contractors in bed with the local mafia
and buying kids for sex! That these guys have some kind of immunity
from prosecution is morally outrageous. How can men be allowed to get
away with rape simply because of location? Rape is a crime no matter
where it occurs and it's important to remember that even prostitution
is against the law in Bosnia. The message we're sending to kids is that
it's okay for America's representatives to rape children. We talk about
the future of the children, helping to build economies, democracy, the
rule of law, and at the same time we fail to prosecute cases like this.
That is immoral and hypocritical, and if DynCorp is involved in this in
any way it should forfeit its contract and pay restitution in the form
of training about trafficking."
Charlene Wheeless, a spokeswoman for DynCorp, vehemently denies any
culpability on the part of the company, According to Wheeless, "The
notion that a company such as DynCorp would turn a blind eye to illegal
behavior by our employees is incomprehensible. DynCorp adheres to a
core set of values that has served as the backbone of our corporation
for the last 55 years, helping us become one of the largest and most
respected professional-services and outsourcing companies in the world.
We can't stress strongly enough that, as an employee-owned corporation,
we take ethics very seriously. DynCorp stands by its decision to
terminate [whistle-blower] Ben Johnston, who was terminated for cause."
What was the "cause" for which Johnston was fired? He received his only
reprimand from DynCorp one day prior to the sting on the DynCorp hangar
when Johnston was working with CID. A week later he received a letter
of discharge for bringing "discredit to the company and the U.S. Army
while working in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina." The discharge notice did
not say how Johnston "brought discredit to the company."
It soon developed conveniently, according to Johnston's attorneys, that
he was implicated by a DynCorp employee for illegal activity in Bosnia.
Harlin, the young high-school graduate Johnston complained had no
experience in aircraft maintenance and didn't even know the purposes of
the basic tools, provided a sworn statement to CID about Johnston.
Asked if anyone ever had offered to sell him a weapon, Harlin fingered
Johnston and DynCorp employee Tom Oliver, who also had disapproved of
the behavior of DynCorp employees.
Harlin even alleged that Johnston was "hanging out with Kevin Werner."
Although Werner had no problem revealing the names and illegal
activities of other DynCorp employees, Werner did not mention
Johnston's name in his sworn statement.
Kevin Glasheen, Johnston's attorney, says flatly of this: "It's
DynCorp's effort to undermine Ben's credibility. But I think once the
jury hears this case, that accusation is only going to make them more
angry at DynCorp. In order to make our claim, we have to show that
DynCorp was retaliating against Ben, and that fits under racketeering.
There is a lot of evidence that shows this was what they were doing and
that it went all the way up the management chain."
According to Glasheen, "DynCorp says that whatever these guys were
doing isn't corporate activity and they're not responsible for it. But
this problem permeated their business and management and they made
business decisions to further the scheme and to cover it up. We have to
show that there was a causal connection between Ben's whistle-blowing
about the sex trade and his being fired. We can do that. We're here to
prove a retaliation case, not convict DynCorp of participating in the
sex-slave trade.
"What you have here is a Lord of the Flies mentality. Basically you've
got a bunch of strong men who are raping and manipulating young girls
who have been kidnapped from their homes. Who's the bad guy? Is it the
guy who buys the girl to give her freedom, the one who kidnaps her and
sells her or the one who liberates her and ends up having sex with her?
And what does it mean when the U.S. steps up and says, 'We don't have
any jurisdiction'? That's absurd."
The outraged attorney pauses for breath. "This is more than one twisted
mind. There was a real corporate culture with a deep commitment to a
cover-up. And it's outrageous that DynCorp still is being paid by the
government on this contract. The worst thing I've seen is a DynCorp
e-mail after this first came up where they're saying how they have
turned this thing into a marketing success, that they have convinced
the government that they could handle something like this."
Johnston is not the only DynCorp employee to blow the whistle and sue
the billion-dollar government contractor. Kathryn Bolkovac, a U.N.
International Police Force monitor hired by the U.S. company on another
U.N.-related contract, has filed a lawsuit in Great Britain against
DynCorp for wrongful termination. DynCorp had a $15 million contract to
hire and train police officers for duty in Bosnia at the time she
reported such officers were paying for prostitutes and participating in
sex-trafficking. Many of these were forced to resign under suspicion of
illegal activity, but none have been prosecuted, as they also enjoy
immunity from prosecution in Bosnia.
DynCorp has admitted it fired five employees for similar illegal
activities prior to Johnston's charges.
But Johnston worries about what this company's culture does to the
reputation of the United States. "The Bosnians think we're all trash.
It's a shame. When I was there as a soldier they loved us, but DynCorp
employees have changed how they think about us. I tried to tell them
that this is not how all Americans act, but it's hard to convince them
when you see what they're seeing. The fact is, DynCorp is the worst
diplomat you could possibly have over there."
Johnston's attorney looks to the outcome. "How this all ends," says
Glasheen, "will say a lot about what we stand for and what we won't
stand for."
Kelly Patricia O'Meara is an investigative reporter for Insight.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050103191014/www.911review.org/Wget/www.insightmag.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/163052.html
http://911review.org/Wget/www.insightmag.com/main.cfm
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