Senate

Grassley probes Pentagon on whistleblower allegations

by Jordain Carney - 11/23/15 12:31 PM ET

Sen. Chuck Grassley is pushing the Pentagon for answers over allegations that a service member faced retaliation after he questioned a task force responsible for building a $43 million gas station in Afghanistan.

The Iowa Republican, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, wants Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to look into allegations that Army Col. John Hope’s evaluation report is being delayed after he wrote a critical complaint about the Defense Department’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO) work in Afghanistan.

{mosads}According to Grassley’s letter, which was sent last week and released Monday, Hope, who was the TFBSO’s director of operations in Afghanistan, told Grassley that his evaluation is being delayed as a form of retaliation after he was critical of the task force’s work.

“Being long overdue, (the evaluation) has placed his next assignment in jeopardy, leaving him in limbo,” Grassley wrote to Carter. “Would you please look into this and find out why Colonel Hope’s (evaluation) has not been completed? I respectfully ask that you provide a deadline for completing that task and providing Colonel Hope with a new set of orders for his next assignment. Your assistance is necessary in this case.”

Grassley added in a statement on Monday that “if the Pentagon is retaliating against someone for speaking out on poor accountability and wasteful spending, that’s unacceptable.”

The task force’s work has been under increasing lawmaker scrutiny after the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found that the task force spent $43 million building a gas station in Afghanistan.

The Iowa Republican said earlier this month that he wants the records for all of the task force’s work in Afghanistan.

Grassley’s office noted on Monday that the Iowa Republican plans to ask for an audit of the task force by the Defense Department’s inspector general.

Tags Chuck Grassley