Judge Gags Ex-Wal-Mart Employee

An Arkansas judge has issued a gag order to prevent a fired Wal-Mart security engineer from speaking to the press.

The judge also ordered the employee, Bruce Gabbard, to reveal contacts who received Wal-Mart information from him, the Associated Press reports.

The gag order was revealed in court papers on Monday.

Wal-Mart alleges in a lawsuit filed late Friday that Gabbard revealed trade secrets about the discount chain’s security and strategic planning to reporters.

A story published Monday in the Wall Street Journal [sub. req.] was based on Gabbard's claim that Wal-Mart had a secret program called "Project Red" to boost its share price.