Poisoning US Troops

[Zahir]

Just read about this case, and frankly I thought there was a limit to how disgusted I could be about the current US policies.

www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/6145238.html

Selective quotes from the article:

Sixteen soldiers said in a complaint in federal court in Evansville, Ind., that Houston-based KBR and related companies are responsible for chromium poisoning at Qarmat Ali, Iraq.

The plaintiffs, from the Tell City, Ind., Guard unit, were providing security for KBR during repairs of a water-treatment plant, according to the complaint. The site was contaminated for six months by hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen in powdered compounds used to control corrosion, it said....

Wait, there is more: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/a ... 02487.html

U.S. soldiers at a military base in Iraq were provided with treated but untested wastewater for nearly two years by KBR, the giant government contractor, and may have suffered health problems as a result, according to a report released yesterday by the Pentagon's inspector general....
...The audit said KBR and the military "exposed U.S. forces to unmonitored and potentially unsafe water" for washing, bathing, shaving and cleaning. It criticized the military for lax oversight at its facilities and said KBR's water quality was "not maintained in accordance with field water sanitary standards."

KBR provides water used in dining, medical and personal hygiene facilities under a multibillion-dollar service contract with the military known as LOGCAP.

LINK

The lawsuit states that KBR was required to comply with military standards for clean water, and monitor it. Eller accused KBR of not performing water quality tests and of not properly treating or chlorinating water, and said an audit by the Defense Department backs up his claim.

A report from Wil Granger, KBR’s water quality manager for Iraq, states that non-potable water used for showering was not disinfected...
...Eller also accused KBR of serving spoiled, expired and rotten food to the troops, as well as dishes that may have been contaminated with shrapnel

“Defendants knowingly and intentionally supplied and served food that was well past its expiration date, in some cases over a year past its expiration date,” the lawsuit states. “Even when it was called to the attention of the KBR food service managers that the food was expired, KBR still served the food to U.S. forces.”

The food included chicken, beef, fish, eggs and dairy products, which caused cases of salmonella poisoning, according to the lawsuit.

“KBR prevented their employees from speaking with government auditors and hid employees from auditors by moving them from bases when an audit was scheduled,” the lawsuit states. “Any employees that spoke with auditors were sent to more dangerous locations in Iraq as punishment.”

The lawsuit also accuses KBR of shipping ice in mortuary trucks that “still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces.”

rawstory.com/news/2007/ABC_Halliburton_rape_victim_speaks_out_1214.html

Appearing in an interview with ABC's Brian Ross, Jamie Leigh Jones spoke about what she describes as horrifying circumstances surrounding her rape and it's aftermath as handled by officials at KBR, a then-subsidiary of private security contractor Halliburton.

KBR was a subsidiary of Halliburton, the company which got no-bid contracts for rebuilding Iraq. Not coincidentally, Vice President Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton until the 2000 election.

[The Laughing Man]

Report: KBR cited in Pentagon probe

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. military officials have found Iraq contractor KBR Inc. (NYSE:KBR) to be in serious noncompliance of safety responsibilities, sources say.

The finding by the U.S. Defense Contract Management Agency against the Houston construction engineering firm means its must immediately correct its deficiencies or lose its contract to provide military services in Iraq, unnamed Pentagon officials told CNN Tuesday.

The Pentagon review of KBR is related to the electrocution deaths of what military officials say is at least 18 U.S. troops in Iraq since 2003, the result, Defense Department officials say, of shoddy electrical wiring work on U.S. bases. The highest-profile case was the January death of the highly decorated Sgt. Ryan Maseth, CNN said.

Maseth's mother, Cheryl Harris, launched an effort to investigate her son's death, and the issue got more exposure this year when U.S. Senate and House of Representatives committees had oversight hearings to investigate the electrocutions.

[Fist and Faith]

hexavalent chromium
Sounds familiar. Isn't that the stuff in Erin Brokovich? Very nasty.

[Avatar]

Sindatur and Esmer, all in one day. Good to see you around guys.

Anyway, I'm sure they didn't do it deliberately. Just the usual lack of oversight and nobody caring...

--A

[[Syl]]

I dunno, Av. IIRC, dozens of soldiers complained about the open burn fumes. I'm also fairly certain that the soldiers asked about the substance and was told it was harmless. It's not quite Tuskegee Experiment intentional, but I wouldn't call it unintentional.

[Avatar]

Well, if there were complaints/questions it certainly makes them all the more culpable. By "not deliberate" I mean without malice aforethought really...they probably didn't set out to poison them. But looking at the long list of offences mentioned in Zahir's quotes again, I gotta agree that these guys are not innocent little lambikins either.

--A