Life In The Army With Bush/Cheney's Corporate Criminal Crony Contractor KBR
In late March I wrote, "At least twelve US military personnel have been electrocuted because of faulty and shoddy wiring at bases in Iraq since 2003. That is reprehensible and criminal.
"Guess which war profiteering company was in charge of maintenance and inspection at a base where a soldier was electrocuted in January when he stepped into the shower?
"KBR, the war profiteer supplying our troops with dirty water and spoiled food and up until last year, a subsidiary of Halliburton where Dick Cheney was CEO. Two months after Cheney's appointment as CEO, a second shell company was established in the Cayman Islands where Halliburton and KBR avoided paying hundreds of millions in taxes by hiring workers through these shell companies in the Caymans.
James Risen of the NYTimes who wrote about those electrocutions now has an updated article about continuing US military electrocutions due to shoddy work and faulty wiring.
"In October 2004, the United States Army issued an urgent bulletin to commanders across Iraq, warning them of a deadly new threat to American soldiers. Because of flawed electrical work by contractors, the bulletin stated, soldiers at American bases in Iraq had received severe electrical shocks, and some had even been electrocuted.
"The bulletin, with the headline “The Unexpected Killer,” was issued after the horrific deaths of two soldiers who were caught in water — one in a shower, the other in a swimming pool — that was suddenly electrified after poorly grounded wiring short-circuited.
"Since that warning, at least two more American soldiers have been electrocuted in similar circumstances. In all, at least a dozen American military personnel have been electrocuted in Iraq, according to the Pentagon and Congressional investigators.
"American electricians who worked for KBR, the Houston-based defense contractor that is responsible for maintaining American bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, said they repeatedly warned company managers and military officials about unsafe electrical work, which was often performed by poorly trained Iraqis and Afghans paid just a few dollars a day.
"One electrician warned his KBR bosses in his 2005 letter of resignation that unsafe electrical work was “a disaster waiting to happen.” Another said he witnessed an American soldier in Afghanistan receiving a potentially lethal shock.
"A third provided e-mail messages and other documents showing that he had complained to KBR and the government that logs were created to make it appear that nonexistent electrical safety systems were properly functioning.
“ 'I don’t feel like they did their job,' Carmen Nolasco Duran of La Puente, Calif., said of Pentagon officials. Her brother, Specialist Marcos O. Nolasco, was electrocuted at a base in Baiji in May 2004 while showering. 'They hired these contractors and yet they didn’t go and double-check that the work was fine.'
"The Defense Contract Management Agency, which is responsible for supervising maintenance work by contractors at American bases in Iraq, defended its performance. In a written statement, the agency said it had no information that staff members “were aware” of the Army alert or “failed to take appropriate action in response to unsafe conditions brought to our attention.”
"Keith Ernst, who stepped down Wednesday as the agency’s director, acknowledged, though, that the agency was “stretched too thin” in Iraq and that the small number of contract officers did not have expertise in dealing with so-called life support contracts, like that awarded to KBR to provide food, shelter and building maintenance. 'We don’t have the technical capability for overseeing life support systems,'he said.
"For its part, KBR, which until last year was known as Kellogg, Brown and Root and was a subsidiary of Halliburton, denied that any lapses by the company had led to the electrocutions of American soldiers.
"Those electricians have a ready response to anyone who suggests that poor electrical work might be considered an unavoidable cost of war. “The excuse KBR always used was, 'This is a war zone — what do you expect?’ recalled Jeffrey Bliss, an Ohio electrician who worked for the company in Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006. 'But if you are going to do the work, you have got to do it safe.'
“ 'All the contract officers can do is check the paperwork,' said one agency official, who asked not to be identified. While about 600 military officers supplement the contract officers, Mr. Ernst said, the soldiers are not adequately trained for the task.
"Cheryl Harris, Sergeant Maseth’s mother, said in an interview that the Army initially told her that her son had taken an electrical appliance into the shower with him. Later, she said, officials told her that investigators had found electrical wires hanging down around the shower. She said she had been skeptical of both accounts and learned the truth only after repeatedly questioning Army officials.
"Her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against KBR, the only such claim brought in any of the electrical deaths.
"Long before Sergeant Maseth’s death, KBR electricians were raising alarms about the dangers of unsafe electrical work at various bases.
"In 2006, John McLain was working as a KBR electrician at the United States regional embassy compound in Hilla, south of Baghdad, when he made a disturbing discovery. A KBR quality control inspector had recently cited employees there for failing to file quarterly ground resistance testing logs — reports on whether the electrical wiring in the newly upgraded embassy building was properly grounded and safe for use.
"Mr. McLain soon realized that the testing was not being conducted, because the building had never been grounded, though KBR and at least one Iraqi subcontractor were supposed to install proper safeguards during a renovation the previous year. Mr. McLain said he had sent a series of increasingly blunt memos and e-mail warnings about the safety hazards to KBR officials.
"Mr. McLain said other KBR electricians later created logs that incorrectly made it appear that the grounding system existed. KBR fired him in 2007 after he told a visiting defense contracting agency official about his concerns."
So what has the Army done about these probable negligent manslaughters by KBR?
As I wrote earlier this week, "Bush's politicized Pentagon knows it's job: support and protect Bushite war profiteering corporate cronies.
"KBR has been mired in scandals according to a Chicago Tribune investigative report. Not just its heinous conduct regarding the rapes and abuse of female employees in Iraq, not just supplying our troops with dirty water and spoiled food, but criminal fraud.
"KBR and its former parent company Halliburton are the models for war profiteering.
"From the Houston Chronicle, "Houston-based KBR has again been selected to participate in a 10-year military logistical support contract valued at up to $150 billion, the U.S. Army announced Thursday.
Bush's politicized Pentagon's US Army gave the Bush/Cheney's criminal war profiteers another multibillion dollar contract for 10 years!
This complete lack of oversight is typical of the Bushite US Army, as I wrote, that greeted troops returning from duty in Afghanistan (where some of their fellow soldiers gave the ultimate sacrifice of their lives) to Ft. Bragg, by assigning them to old barracks with aging infrastructure, infestations of mold, peeling paint, standing water filled with feces and urine, rust, and ripped out fixtures.
The Bush administration has ruined the US Army and its support system by putting the profits of Bushite crony war profiteers before the safety and well being of our troops by privatizing those services once done by Army personnel and/or by American civil service employees accountable to the American people.
Under the Bush administration there is no effective oversight of or accountability by Bushite war profiteers and they are killing and injuring our soldiers and stealing from the American taxpayers with impunity.
And impeachment is still off the table.
"Guess which war profiteering company was in charge of maintenance and inspection at a base where a soldier was electrocuted in January when he stepped into the shower?
"KBR, the war profiteer supplying our troops with dirty water and spoiled food and up until last year, a subsidiary of Halliburton where Dick Cheney was CEO. Two months after Cheney's appointment as CEO, a second shell company was established in the Cayman Islands where Halliburton and KBR avoided paying hundreds of millions in taxes by hiring workers through these shell companies in the Caymans.
James Risen of the NYTimes who wrote about those electrocutions now has an updated article about continuing US military electrocutions due to shoddy work and faulty wiring.
"In October 2004, the United States Army issued an urgent bulletin to commanders across Iraq, warning them of a deadly new threat to American soldiers. Because of flawed electrical work by contractors, the bulletin stated, soldiers at American bases in Iraq had received severe electrical shocks, and some had even been electrocuted.
"The bulletin, with the headline “The Unexpected Killer,” was issued after the horrific deaths of two soldiers who were caught in water — one in a shower, the other in a swimming pool — that was suddenly electrified after poorly grounded wiring short-circuited.
"Since that warning, at least two more American soldiers have been electrocuted in similar circumstances. In all, at least a dozen American military personnel have been electrocuted in Iraq, according to the Pentagon and Congressional investigators.
"The accidental deaths and close calls, which are being investigated by Congress and the Defense Department’s inspector general, raise new questions about the oversight of contractors in the war zone, where unjustified killings by security guards, shoddy reconstruction projects and fraud involving military supplies have spurred previous inquiries.
"American electricians who worked for KBR, the Houston-based defense contractor that is responsible for maintaining American bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, said they repeatedly warned company managers and military officials about unsafe electrical work, which was often performed by poorly trained Iraqis and Afghans paid just a few dollars a day.
"One electrician warned his KBR bosses in his 2005 letter of resignation that unsafe electrical work was “a disaster waiting to happen.” Another said he witnessed an American soldier in Afghanistan receiving a potentially lethal shock.
"A third provided e-mail messages and other documents showing that he had complained to KBR and the government that logs were created to make it appear that nonexistent electrical safety systems were properly functioning.
KBR itself told the Pentagon in early 2007 about unsafe electrical wiring at a base near the Baghdad airport, but no repairs were made. Less than a year later, a soldier was electrocuted in a shower there.
“ 'I don’t feel like they did their job,' Carmen Nolasco Duran of La Puente, Calif., said of Pentagon officials. Her brother, Specialist Marcos O. Nolasco, was electrocuted at a base in Baiji in May 2004 while showering. 'They hired these contractors and yet they didn’t go and double-check that the work was fine.'
"The Defense Contract Management Agency, which is responsible for supervising maintenance work by contractors at American bases in Iraq, defended its performance. In a written statement, the agency said it had no information that staff members “were aware” of the Army alert or “failed to take appropriate action in response to unsafe conditions brought to our attention.”
"Keith Ernst, who stepped down Wednesday as the agency’s director, acknowledged, though, that the agency was “stretched too thin” in Iraq and that the small number of contract officers did not have expertise in dealing with so-called life support contracts, like that awarded to KBR to provide food, shelter and building maintenance. 'We don’t have the technical capability for overseeing life support systems,'he said.
"For its part, KBR, which until last year was known as Kellogg, Brown and Root and was a subsidiary of Halliburton, denied that any lapses by the company had led to the electrocutions of American soldiers.
"Those electricians have a ready response to anyone who suggests that poor electrical work might be considered an unavoidable cost of war. “The excuse KBR always used was, 'This is a war zone — what do you expect?’ recalled Jeffrey Bliss, an Ohio electrician who worked for the company in Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006. 'But if you are going to do the work, you have got to do it safe.'
“ 'All the contract officers can do is check the paperwork,' said one agency official, who asked not to be identified. While about 600 military officers supplement the contract officers, Mr. Ernst said, the soldiers are not adequately trained for the task.
"Cheryl Harris, Sergeant Maseth’s mother, said in an interview that the Army initially told her that her son had taken an electrical appliance into the shower with him. Later, she said, officials told her that investigators had found electrical wires hanging down around the shower. She said she had been skeptical of both accounts and learned the truth only after repeatedly questioning Army officials.
"Her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against KBR, the only such claim brought in any of the electrical deaths.
"Long before Sergeant Maseth’s death, KBR electricians were raising alarms about the dangers of unsafe electrical work at various bases.
"In 2006, John McLain was working as a KBR electrician at the United States regional embassy compound in Hilla, south of Baghdad, when he made a disturbing discovery. A KBR quality control inspector had recently cited employees there for failing to file quarterly ground resistance testing logs — reports on whether the electrical wiring in the newly upgraded embassy building was properly grounded and safe for use.
"Mr. McLain soon realized that the testing was not being conducted, because the building had never been grounded, though KBR and at least one Iraqi subcontractor were supposed to install proper safeguards during a renovation the previous year. Mr. McLain said he had sent a series of increasingly blunt memos and e-mail warnings about the safety hazards to KBR officials.
"Mr. McLain said other KBR electricians later created logs that incorrectly made it appear that the grounding system existed. KBR fired him in 2007 after he told a visiting defense contracting agency official about his concerns."
So what has the Army done about these probable negligent manslaughters by KBR?
As I wrote earlier this week, "Bush's politicized Pentagon knows it's job: support and protect Bushite war profiteering corporate cronies.
"KBR has been mired in scandals according to a Chicago Tribune investigative report. Not just its heinous conduct regarding the rapes and abuse of female employees in Iraq, not just supplying our troops with dirty water and spoiled food, but criminal fraud.
"KBR and its former parent company Halliburton are the models for war profiteering.
"From the Houston Chronicle, "Houston-based KBR has again been selected to participate in a 10-year military logistical support contract valued at up to $150 billion, the U.S. Army announced Thursday.
Bush's politicized Pentagon's US Army gave the Bush/Cheney's criminal war profiteers another multibillion dollar contract for 10 years!
This complete lack of oversight is typical of the Bushite US Army, as I wrote, that greeted troops returning from duty in Afghanistan (where some of their fellow soldiers gave the ultimate sacrifice of their lives) to Ft. Bragg, by assigning them to old barracks with aging infrastructure, infestations of mold, peeling paint, standing water filled with feces and urine, rust, and ripped out fixtures.
The Bush administration has ruined the US Army and its support system by putting the profits of Bushite crony war profiteers before the safety and well being of our troops by privatizing those services once done by Army personnel and/or by American civil service employees accountable to the American people.
Under the Bush administration there is no effective oversight of or accountability by Bushite war profiteers and they are killing and injuring our soldiers and stealing from the American taxpayers with impunity.
And impeachment is still off the table.
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