The Government Accountability Office, itself responsible for policing the integrity of Washington’s maneuvering, accused of lacking integrity? Who would ever believe such a thing? Subrata Ghoshroy does. The senior technical analyst with the GAO has accused the office of intentionally looking the other way while the main contractors building a $26-billion (U.S.) warhead for the U.S. missile defence system doctored data and falsified research.

The GAO investigation at the source of Ghoshroy’s accusations was initially requested in 2000, four years after a senior engineer working for Boeing subcontractor TRW filed suit against her company over falsified research. Ghoshroy says his team found evidence against Boeing and TRW, yet the GAO’s final report in 2002 cleared them of any wrongdoing. The case was thrown out in 2003 after a federal judge decided hearing it would threaten national security.

Dismissing Ghoshroy as a “low level, disgruntled employee,” GAO head David Walker insists the whole thing’s a misunderstanding.

» Scott Saxon