GI Casket Photog Sued Cheney in 2000

A cargo handler in Kuwait fired from her job this week for photographing the caskets of GIs killed in Iraq, along with the friend who helped her get the photograph published in the Seattle Times, say their decision to go public had nothing to do with politics.

But it turns out that four years ago the duo, Tami Silicio and Amy Katz, sued Halliburton, then run by Vice President Dick Cheney, naming Cheney in the suit.

Reports unearthed by KTTH Seattle radio host Mike Siegel reveal that Katz and Silicio, who was fired Wednesday for violating the Pentagon's policy against photographing the caskets of slain GIs, sued Halliburton for sexual harassment while they worked for the company's subsidiary, Brown & Root, in Kosovo.

The September 2000 lawsuit claimed that it was discriminatory for the company to accommodate Arab cultural customs by maintaining separate bathrooms for host country nationals and Americans.

"I was totally outraged. I refused to use the ones for the Americans," Katz told CBS News at the time. "I tried to explain that I thought this was terrible and it was my way of protesting it."

Katz was joined in her legal complaint against Cheney's company by Silicio, who has been the subject of a torrent of sympathetic media coverage since her dismissal from a different contractor, Maytag Aircraft, was announced on Thursday.

On Sept. 22, 2000, the San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage reported:

"Tami Silicio drove a truck for the company, which she noted is traditionally a male profession. When she refused sexual propositions from co-workers, they started calling her names like 'bitch' and 'whore,' according to a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission.

"Additionally, the coworkers told her 'you should be at home pleasing a man and not at work trying to be one.' After reporting this to upper management, she was fired in retaliation, according to the complaint."

Seattle attorney Patricia Buchanan represented both women in the lawsuit.

Radio host Siegel said on Friday that the Katz-Silicio lawsuit against Cheney raises questions about the politics behind the casket-photo story, saying the two women likely had an ax to grind against the Bush administration.

He also chastised the press for not noting the Katz-Silicio lawsuit, asking, "What does that say about the Seattle Times, which printed the photo without doing any investigation?"

Ms. Katz insisted last night that neither she nor Silicio had any political motivation, telling MSNBC that they thought publishing the photo was a good way of honoring the fallen troops.

She admitted, however, that she has retained an agent to help sell the casket photo, with the proceeds to be divided between charity and a fund to help pay Silicio's debts in the wake of her firing.

Editor's note: