   
Proud WhistleblowerIn response to "Special Report: Investing, Pentagon-Style," April 4, 2001
Editor, I would like to express my gratitude for your article about the Defense Enterprise Fund. I think that was an excellent report. Everyone wants to just have fun and earn as much money doing so as possible; I certainly fit this description. But there is something that separates us from animals (and, actually, also from marauders), and this is a sense of duty, a historical memory and a spiritual connection. The DEF was given money by the U.S. Congress to convert former Soviet producers of weapons of mass destruction to peaceful ends. Please pause to consider this sentence. Weapons of mass destruction - I think this is pretty important. The U.S. Congress allocated money so that those who used to produce weapons that could be directed against America could turn their extremely dangerous knowledge to productive, peaceful pursuits and feed their families as well. I am a Russian-born American, and the mere idea of such work makes me proud. DEF employees like myself were duty-bound to do the best job they could. I definitely was duty-bound to report what I saw as horrendous abuse that I was powerless to stop on my own. In July 1999, I wrote a letter of concern to the U.S. State Department about the DEF. This letter has now been posted on my web site, http://matthew-maly.ru, so that anyone interested can compare it with the account of the DEF's work presented in The Moscow Times. In my letter, I alleged that up to $20 million of U.S. funds might have been lost due to mismanagement. Two years later, my allegations still have not been refuted, and a criminal investigation is currently under way. After I wrote my letter, there was an internal investigation conducted by the DEF board. As your reporter points out, it was "mildly critical" of the DEF. After that, I spent months trying to get my allegations investigated by the U.S. Defense Department's Office of the Inspector General, a copy of whose report is also now on my web site. Please refer to it. It is a whitewash far beyond anything I thought possible. Your article points out that even though I received a very good recommendation letter, DEF officials characterized me very differently behind my back. Now I have a better idea why I have not been able to find another position since I left DEF. As time went by, my family could no longer afford the apartment we were living in. As your article reports, my wife thought that I was an idiot for believing that the money allocated to DEF was not just the plaything of DEF's top managers. Now, though, my wife no longer thinks me an idiot, and I thank you for proving to her (and to the Russian employees of DEF) that American democracy does exist. The experience has only made our family stronger: My wife is Ukrainian, and I am an American, and she now knows - thanks to your newspaper - what America is really all about. Your article gave a rather unflattering description of me. But I am not offended. You thought that the story was important, and your reporter, Matt Bivens, did it and did it well. As for my being called shrill, disgruntled, etc., etc. - it really does not matter to me. You showed I was not a marauder and you let me accomplish my goal: to have it recognized that one should either treat U.S. assistance funds with respect and a true sense of mission or give a complete accounting to the American public, without a cover up or lame and shameful excuses. Matthew Maly 
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