KBR Rape Case Highlights Problems With Secret Arbitration

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Rape Case Highlights Arbitration Debate

by Wade Goodwyn

NPR’s All Things Considered, June 9, 2009

If you would like to listen to this 8 minute show on NPR’s All Things Considered click HERE

Jamie Leigh Jones was a 20-year-old Halliburton employee in 2005 when she was sent to work in Iraq. She’d been there just four days when she joined a small group of Halliburton firefighters outside her barracks at the end of the day. One of them gave her a drink. She took two sips, and Jones says that was the last thing she remembered.

“I woke up inside the barracks,” she says. “It was actually inside my barrack room, and that’s when I noticed I had been severely beaten and was actually naked.”

Jones had been raped, repeatedly. By how many men, she’s not sure. But she says one man was still naked and asleep in the room when she came to.

“Apparently, he knew he was beyond the reach of any jurisdiction, so he was still brazen enough to be there,” she says.

Jones was escorted by security to the company clinic for a rape examination. When the rape kit examination was done, the evidence was turned over to Halliburton security. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Oregon National Guardsman say KBR safety managers knew about poison

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Guardsmen Say KBR Exposed Them to Poison

By KARINA BROWN

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) – Five National Guardsmen say military contractor KBR knowingly exposed them to hexavalent chromium during restoration of an Iraqi water facility. The men say that when they developed “chrome nose” bleeding, KBR brushed off the telltale sign, claiming that they were allergic to sand.

Rocky Bixby, Lawrence Roberta, Scott Ashby, Charles Ellis and Matthew Hadley claim that KBR’s southern Iraq Health Safety Environment manager knew about the contamination in May 2003, but the company kept them working, and in the dark, for 4 more months.

KBR allegedly conducted a full-site analysis to identify hazards in April 2003, and billed the government for that work. KBR even continued operation for an extra month after 60 percent of onsite workers reported symptoms of acute poising, the plaintiffs say. (Read the rest of the story here…)

KBR gets sued by MORE shareholders

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Another lawsuit against KBR on behalf of shareholders.

SAN DIEGO, CA (Shareholders Foundation) — Investors in Halliburton Company (Public, NYSE:HAL) and KBR, Inc. Public, NYSE:KBR) have filed at least two separate on behalf of current investors in Halliburton Company Public, NYSE:HAL) in Texas state court on Thursday, May 14, 2009 against certain one-time Halliburton subsidiary KBR, Inc. executives and officers and others alleging that poor oversight and lack of internal controls enabled a pervasive environment of misdeed and corruption, resulting in enforcement actions and substantial government penalties that have severely damaged investors’ holdings. (click HERE to read the rest of the article)

I do believe that was on my list of things I wanted to see happen for 2009. That makes two now…I guess I can check that off!

Ms Sparky

Commission on Wartime Contracting Interim Report

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On May 4, 2009 the held a hearing LOGCAP: Support-Contracting Challenges in Iraq and Afghanistan (click HERE to view testimony). Since that time there has been a lot of discussion about waste fraud and abuse in the DoD contracting arena and much anticipation waiting for the the Commission on Wartime Contracting Interim Report.

So….click HERE to read it. Now you know what I will be doing tonight. I am sure I will be blogging about it tomorrow.

Ms Sparky

KBR sues the United States of America

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Yes it’s true. KBR filed suit against the United States of America on June 2, 2009. Below is an excerpt from that suit, Case 1:09-cv-00351-SGB (click HERE to read the entire complaint)

—————————————————————————————————————-

COMPLAINT

Plaintiff, Kellogg Brown & Root Services, Inc (“KBR”), files it’s complaint against the United States of America the “government”).

INTRODUCTION

This complaint results from the government’s attack, based upon the erroneous application of law and fact, on the reasonableness of the price KBR paid to a subcontractor performing services to assist KBR in performing certain requirements under a contract with the United States Army. This contract required KBR to provide logistics support, including dining facility services, to combat soldiers in Iraq since 2003 without interruption because interruption could have a significant negative impact on war-fighter capability. As part of its contract performance, KBR subcontracted with Tamimi Global Company, Ltd. to provide dining facility services to United States combat soldiers in Iraq at Camp Anaconda, located north of Baghdad. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Oregon soldiers sue KBR for chemical exposures

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Oregon soldiers sue KBR for exposure to cancer-causing chemical in Iraq

by Julie Sullivan, The Oregonian
Monday June 08, 2009, 7:13 PM

Five current and former Oregon Army National Guard soldiers filed suit Monday against a war contractor that they say knowingly exposed them to a cancer-causing chemical in Iraq.

The suit alleges that managers from Kellogg, Brown & Root, or KBR, of Houston knew before the Oregon Guard arrived at the water treatment plant in May 2003 that the site was contaminated by hexavalent chromium, a highly toxic and long-identified carcinogen.

The plaintiffs allege the company either failed to do the required testing a month before the Guard arrived or destroyed the records to conceal the contamination. KBR also discounted soldiers’ and civilians’ bloody noses and other symptoms of exposure as sand allergies. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Tensions mount as KBR terminations continue

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I am getting reports the tension is mounting and that some terminated employees are contemplating violence against KBR managers. Please DO NOT do that.

I know how you are feeling. I also have felt so betrayed, angry and frustrated by my own KBR management that I too considered doing things to them that I would NEVER consider in the States. But I resisted. It’s the stress of spending time in a war zone…. and the war is with KBR.

Walk away from that hell hole with your head held high. Not in handcuffs. Keep in mind you are now under Iraqi law. Don’t do jail time in Iraq because of some dumb ass KBR manager.

If you are hell bent on revenge. Get home and tell your stories to the media, Congress or some other investigating agency.

Take a deep breath. Stay calm and get to Dubai airport as fast as you can.

It aint over yet!!

Ms Sparky