KBR may have poisoned 100,000 people in Iraq
So many ways to rip off the government and so little time. KBR, once again in the spotlight for yet more malfeasance. Back in May we found that KBR was paid $80 million in bonuses for contracts to install electrical wiring in Iraq, wiring that electrocuted American soldiers. Now we find they may have exposed 100,000 people to cancer causing toxins, among the number are U.S. troops. With “friends” like KBR, who needs enemies?
Not only has KBR made a lot of money for performing shoddy work, it has avoided paying millions of dollars in social security and Medicare taxes by using shell companies in the Cayman Islands to hire workers.
Just to refresh your memory, KBR is the company who tried to cover up the rape of one of their employees, Jamie Leigh Jones, who was raped by fellow employees.
In 2007, an executive for an air freight company subcontracted to KBR pled guilty to dispensing bribes and then lying to federal investigators in a case involving a network of kickbacks, fraud and bribes….the network was comprised of at least 8 KBR employees and subcontractors. I’m sure I could find more incidences of KBR misdeeds, but you get the picture.
Why, with all of it’s wrongdoing, is KBR still holding contracts from the U.S. government?
KBR may have poisoned 100,000 people in Iraq: lawsuit
By Daniel Tencer
Monday, November 9th, 2009 — 10:33 am
Defense contractor KBR may have exposed as many as 100,000 people, including US troops, to cancer-causing toxins by burning waste in open-air pits in Iraq, says a series of class-action lawsuits filed against the company.
At least 22 separate lawsuits claiming KBR poisoned American soldiers in Iraq have been combined into a single massive lawsuit that says KBR, which until not long ago was a subsidiary of Halliburton, sought to save money by disposing of toxic waste and incinerating numerous potentially harmful substances in open-air “burn pits.”
According to one of the lawsuits (PDF), filed in a federal court in Nashville, KBR burned “tires, lithium batteries … biohazard materials (including human corpses), medical supplies (including those used during smallpox inoculations), paints, solvents, asbestos insulation, items containing pesticides, polyvinyl chloride pipes, animal carcasses, dangerous chemicals, and hundreds of thousands of plastic water bottles.”
And they did so within plain sight of US troops operating in Iraq, the lawsuit states. “In some instances, the burn pit smoke was so bad that it interfered with the military mission,” the Nashville lawsuit states. “For example, the military located at Camp Bucca, a detention facility, had difficulty guarding the facility as a result of the smoke.”
November 10th, 2009 at 8:49 am
We are pretty sure the company that hired my brother as a soil tester in AZ back in the 70’s for a project by Bechtel was a shell company. We went looking for it when he was diagnosed with bone cancer. A piece of equipment he used was carried on his hip and was radio active. His cancer was the type that radiation exposure gives you. His initial tumors were clustered on that hip.
Shell companies are formed and disbanded all the times. They are subcontractors. It increases profit ( they are paying themselves again) and decreases liability.
Sage Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I’m sorry about your brother. That’s terrible. Where is the regulation when it comes to these shell companies?
November 10th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Remeber, these corps have “rights” the same as Our individual rights. This comes up every now and then. It appears that our government reps are, for the most part single issue lawmakers. One thing at a time.
December 7th, 2009 at 3:39 am
All of this is true about the burning of trash of all kinds in the open pits and open piles of trash in Iraq affecting our troops and our own American contractors. I worked for KBR from March 2005 to May 2009 on the U.S. base of C-5 Taji , just north of Baghdad. The smoke from the “burn pit” was sometimes very difficult to take. In the final year I worked there, a very good friend of mine worked at the burn pit. She was the admin for the KBR supervisor there, basically meaning the secretary. Not given much recognition as she is a TCN ( third country national ) in which is paid much less than KBR workers, and held in regards to be of less in respect than KBR workers. KBR itself for most of the workers there are not even KBR , they work for another company called Service Employees International. To the subject of the burn pit and the smoke it emits, the friend I have that worked there directly ( on site where they actually burn the trash) says she saw all kinds of things there, and yes even some human remains, and many many plastic water bottles and anything and everthing you could think of. Especially in the 2005 -2007 years when I was there , I personally transported some items to be burned , as I worked nearby and we all have trash to dispose of. In the latest part of my stay there they were installing incinerators , but very behind on that. Yet the effects of the smoke had already taken effect on many of us that had been there in the earlier years, contractors and soldiers alike. This has me very upset and worried about my health if the future. My greatest anger with KBR is how they keep doing this ,and how they get away with it all. On the money side, when I went through the testing and training , and was to be hired, I had to sign a contract to be paid as , the first 40 hours with uplift pay for working in a war zone , and being in a foreign country. Yet I worked 84 hours a week , being 12 hours a day. So for the other 44 hours of work , I only got paid straight pay , no overtime , no uplift , no foreign soil pay. Insane when I read this in the contract , that I actually had to sign saying I would agree to this. Yet I needed a job , so I did. Just imagine how much it would be if they actually paid me what they owe me. By the way , the uplift was 75% of my base pay. Thus the remaining 44 hours a week I worked , I did not receive any uplift. Why would the U.S. government pay KBR for employees this way , especially since many of those employees were American citizens , and many were former U.S. soldiers. Personally I feel I am due the money they held out on me , and due some kind of medical assistance if I ever need it due to the exposure to the chemicals from the open burning of trash. Yet will this ever happen, I think not. We live in a world of deceit and deception in big companies, and government. Corruption is the word that comes to mind. Government officials paid off and big companies allowed to have their corrupt practices swept under the rug. So many are due some compensation for their time of service in that hell hole of Iraq, I would like to know of any information anyone might have of anyone putting up a fight against this corruption, so I can join in.
Sage Reply:
December 7th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Hi, Jimmy,
I really feel terrible that KBR is allowed to treat it’s employees the way you and others have been treated and I don’t know why they are allowed to continue to do so. I’m sure you are worried about your health and I would think that should you have medical problems as a result of the burning that KBR you would be able to seek some kind of damages through the court, regardless of the contract. As you probably know, the young woman who was raped by KBR employees and whose contract said she must go to arbitration has won the right to sue KBR in court. You can find that information HERE.
I highly recommend you contact your representatives and senators and explain the situation to them. And I would also contact Senator Al Franken since he led the charge and introduced the rape amendment that would prevent the Pentagon from doing business with contractors who force employees into binding arbitration over rape and sexual assault charges.
Jamie Leigh Jones has a website you might want to check out and maybe her organization would be willing to expand their fight against contractors to encompass issues such as those you mention. Here is an excerpt from her site:
You can find her website HERE.
It is possible that there are regulations concerning the pay of employees of contractors imposed by the Pentagon.
If I can assist you, please let me know.