Here are three video clips from the press conference held today in Washington DC by Senator Dorgan, Senator Casey and Cheryl Harris. The subject being the DoD Inspector General’s reports on the electrocution deaths and electrical conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Senator Byron Dorgan D-ND; Chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee (2:55)
Cheryl Harris; mother of SSG Ryan Maseth (2:14)
Senator Bob Casey D-PA; Cheryl Harris’ Senator (2:09)
***OPEN TO THE PUBLIC***
Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing
“The Exposure at Qarmat Ali:
Did the Army Fail to Protect U.S. Soldiers Serving in Iraq?”
Monday, August 3, 2009
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
628 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Find more information about the issue here.
In April 2003, the Army assigned members of the IN, OR, and SC National Guard to escort and protect KBR contractors working on the “Restore Iraqi Oil” contract. This contract was for the assessment and repair of Iraq’s oil infrastructure. Repairing the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant, which maintained pressure in nearby oil wells, was a key part of this mission.
Weeks after soldiers arrived at Qarmat Ali, a newly arrived KBR safety officer complained of widespread orange and yellow dust piled feet deep in places. That powder was sodium dichromate, a hexavalent chromium compound used as a corrosion fighter in the oil pipes. The same deadly chemical made famous by the movie Erin Brockovich. The safety officer at Qarmat Ali reported that 60 percent of the soldiers and staff at the site reported suffering adverse health effects including nose perforations, nose bleeds, spitting up blood, and itchy lungs.
According to the Army, KBR did not test conditions at Qarmat Ali until August 2003 — and waited to notify the military of the potential sodium dichromate exposure until one month later, in September 2003. The Indiana Guard learned of the contamination when KBR managers arrived in protective suits in August.
Witnesses at this hearing will discuss the Army’s response to U.S. soldiers’ exposure to sodium dichromate, a potentially deadly carcinogen, at the Qarmat Ali water injection facility. The hearing will include testimony from soldiers from the IN, OR, and WV National Guard who have become sick after being exposed at the site. Senators will examine the Army’s response to the exposure, including its oversight of contractor KBR, testing and monitoring of those who were exposed, and communications with soldiers about the nature, extent and possible health consequences of their exposure.
For more information contact Carl Segerblom at (202) 224-1833 or carl_segerblom@dpc.senate.gov.
Below are excerpts from a Houston Chronicle article published yesterday.
In a conference call Thursday morning to discuss the company’s second-quarter results with market analysts, KBR’s Bill Utt told analysts that KBR will not protest the outcome of two awards to other engineering and construction companies for U.S. Army work in Afghanistan. DynCorp International Inc. and Fluor Corp. were awarded a combined $3 billion contract earlier this month for support services to U.S. troops.
Recently, two major contracts in Afghanistan were awarded to the other contractors. Utt said today that KBR will not challenge the Army’s decision on the contracts, but after being briefed by the Pentagon, believes the awards went to other companies because the government feels pressure to divide the work among several companies rather than giving it to a single provider.
The Houston-based company warned that its U.S. troop support work in Afghanistan will begin to wind down in coming months as other contractors take over and will also decline in Iraq amid planned American troop withdrawls. (click HERE to read the entire article)
Hmmm. All my “Ms Sparky” senses are going off! (note: Spiderman has “spidy sense”) KBR must be up to something and it has to do with money. To not protest this award will cost them millions just in reimbursable expenses of daily operations. They could have drug this on for months. To protest a huge contract award such as this should be Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
Is it just me or does something stink here?
Ms Sparky
KBR put out this press release yesterday and it is just plain KBR crap! It disturbs me how the news media will just take a press release at face value from a company like KBR without even asking the other party involved for a statement. You can read the truth about what’s going on in the news article below.
Below is KBR’s BS press release
Houston, Texas – July 28, 2009 – KBR (NYSE:KBR) announced today it has been dismissed from two lawsuits arising from an electrocution incident that resulted in the death of Sergeant Chris Everett. The dismissal orders were issued by the United States District Courts in the Southern District of Texas and the Eastern District of Louisiana.
“The dismissal orders affirm that despite repeated criticism and statements made by several public officials on Capitol Hill and related media reports, KBR had no involvement in the factors that led to the tragic death of Sergeant Everett,” said Andrew D. Farley, KBR Senior Vice President and General Counsel.
KBR is a global engineering, construction and services company supporting the energy, hydrocarbon, government services and civil infrastructure sectors. The company offers a wide range of services through its Downstream, Government and Infrastructure, Services, Technology, Upstream and Ventures business segments. For more information, visit www.kbr.com.
CONTACT:
KBR, Houston
Director, Communications
Heather Browne, 713-753-3775
heather.browne@kbr.com
or
Director, Investor Relations
Rob Kukla, Jr., 713-753-5082
investors@kbr.com
Below is the truth about what really happened.
By Robin Acton
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The mother of a Texas soldier electrocuted in Iraq in 2005 said it was a difficult decision to drop wrongful death lawsuits filed in two states against defense contractor KBR Inc.
Larraine McGee, mother of Staff Sgt. Christopher L. Everett, said Tuesday she felt she had no choice when she agreed to KBR’s request to dismiss federal complaints filed against the company in Texas and Louisiana. She said she feared “losing the whole case,” which also names as a defendant Arkel International LLC, a defense contractor based in Baton Rouge.
“KBR had us tied up in appeals, and Arkel didn’t appeal anything,” said McGee, of Huntsville, Texas. “I was afraid of losing it all. I felt I had to do this so the case against Arkel could continue.”
Houston-based KBR yesterday issued a statement indicating that its removal from the cases absolves the company of responsibility in the death of Everett, 23, who was killed while power-washing sand from a Humvee in a motor pool on Sept. 7, 2005.
“The dismissal orders affirm that, despite repeated criticism and statements made by several public officials on Capitol Hill and related media reports, KBR had no involvement in the factors that led to the tragic death of Sergeant Everett,” said Andrew D. Farley, KBR senior vice president and general counsel.
The Army’s criminal investigation into Everett’s death is ongoing, according to a report released Monday by the Department of Defense inspector general. (click HERE for the original article)
This statement by Farley is BS and there should be some sort of punishment the DoD can dish out for this.
This dismissal does not affirm that KBR was not responsible for Chris’s death. All it affirms is overwhelming legal wrangling on KBR’s part. But to claim that this dismissal proves they had nothing to do with Chris’s death is just inaccurate. The dismissal had nothing to do at all with evidence of the case. The Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) isn’t even finished with their investigation.
The suit will still go forward with KBR’s former co-defendant Arkel International from Louisiana.
I hope the shareholders are paying attention here.
I have always referred to Heather Browne’s office as the “Office of Bogus Bull Shit”. Either Brown and Farley share an office or KBR has two “Office’s of Bogus Bull Shit”! Who would’ve thought!
Ms Sparky
By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 28, 2009
NORFOLK. VA
A Virginia Beach Navy corpsman has filed a lawsuit against the defense contracting giant KBR, claiming he suffered burns and nerve damage from an electrical shock when company workers mistakenly turned on a generator in Iraq in 2007.
This is the latest in a string of lawsuits and federal investigations targeting alleged faulty electrical work by KBR in Iraq since the Texas-based company obtained a lucrative contract to provide electrical service there.
At least 16 service members and two American contractors have died from electrocution in Iraq since the war began in 2003, and thousands more have been injured from shocks, according to media and government reports.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Peter Taylor of Sir Barton Drive in Virginia Beach was serving as a hospital corpsman with a Marine unit at Camp Fallujah in the summer of 2007 when he was injured. At the time, KBR had a contract to provide maintenance and management, including electrical service, to the camp.
His lawsuit seeks $2.5 million and was filed in U.S. District Court on Friday. It says “KBR’s main electrical generator at Camp Fallujah was frequently malfunctioning or not functioning resulting in the armed service personnel at a critical forward operating base to be without electrical power.”
On July 27 of that summer, Taylor and a group of Marines, fed up with the constant lack of electrical power, decided to hook up their own generator. To do this, they disconnected KBR’s main generator in that area, the lawsuit says.
While Taylor and the others worked on an electrical box, a group of KBR electricians came by and “were specifically advised to not turn on the main generator until notified by the Marines,” the lawsuit states.
The KBR workers acknowledged the request, but while the Marines were still working on the box, the KBR electricians inexplicably turned on the main generator, the lawsuit says.
Taylor had his hands on the wiring at that moment and “a powerful electrical current” went through him and he “had to be forcefully pulled from the wiring box to stop from being electrocuted,” the suit says.
Taylor suffered third-degree burns on his hands and wrists plus nerve damage. He spent months at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and is now home. The suit claims that his hands still don’t function properly.
Taylor was not available for an interview Monday. His lawyer, Stephen Swain of Virginia Beach, said he recognized KBR’s history in Iraq before filing the suit.
“Basically it shows a pattern of what was going on in the way they handled their people. So many times, the war profiteer folks across the way in Iraq and Afghanistan do not utilize the highest measure of safety,” he said.
“Any company over there making the kind of money they’re making should use the utmost standard of care, which we don’t believe was being used in this case,” he said.
KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne said she was not familiar with the Taylor lawsuit and could not comment on it. She did not respond to other e-mail questions.
Service members killed or injured in a war zone may have trouble suing military contractors. They are already prohibited from suing the government.
A federal appeals court ruled earlier this month that military personnel cannot sue private contractors in American courts for damages sustained on the battlefield. The family of an Army sergeant, who was critically injured when his truck, driven by a KBR worker, overturned in Iraq, had sued KBR and its former parent Halliburton.
But there are other suits still making their way through the system. None has yet to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
Of the 18 people who died from electrocution in Iraq, the government has linked only one death directly to KBR. However, the company has sternly denied its workers caused any deaths or injuries.
The New York Times and The Associated Press reported earlier this year that an Army investigation into the electrocution of Green Beret Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth of Pennsylvania found “credible information” that his death was the result of criminal negligence by KBR workers. Maseth’s family is also suing KBR.
William C. Bodie, KBR’s interim president of government and infrastructure, issued a statement in May denouncing damaging media reports of federal investigations into the company.
“There is no link between faulty KBR wiring and electrocutions, nor is KBR aware of any Pentagon investigation that has made such a link,” the statement said.
The Defense Department has acknowledged an investigation into KBR’s electrical work in Iraq and issued a scathing report last fall, citing “serious noncompliance” with its contract.
“This failure is widespread and manifests itself primarily in electrical service deficiencies,” according to a letter sent to KBR by the Pentagon’s Defense Contract Management Agency. “As such, this failure has created immediate life, health and safety hazards for our deployed personnel,” the letter said. (Click HERE for original article)
Click HERE to read the original complaint.
We know how many soldiers and civilians have been killed by electrocution….well for the most part. But how many have been injured? 100′s? 1000′s? We may never know.
Ms Sparky
By Robin Acton
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
An April assessment of buildings occupied by U.S. troops in Afghanistan revealed dangerous electrical conditions similar to those found previously in Iraq, according to a report released Tuesday by the Department of Defense inspector general.
Although some hazards were corrected in recent weeks, serious grounding and wiring deficiencies remain, says the report that stresses a need for immediate action at Camp Brown and Forward Operating Base Spin Boldak, both in the Kandahar province near Afghanistan’s southern border.
The report was released a day after the inspector general released results of a review of 18 electrocutions in Iraq that found the military and Houston-based defense contractor KBR Inc. responsible for the death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, of Shaler. The Green Beret died Jan. 2, 2008, when a KBR-installed rooftop pump shorted out and electrified the water flowing into his shower. KBR maintains it is not responsible for Maseth’s death.
One of the government’s largest defense contractors, KBR provides meals, shelter, transportation, maintenance and other logistical support services in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although KBR is listed among military commands, agencies and contractors interviewed in conjunction with the assessment, the inspector general did not identify contractors responsible for specific deficiencies in electrical systems in Afghanistan.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, have led the fight in Congress toward resolving electrical issues and achieving better contractor accountability.
Dorgan, as chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee, and others have called for a broad review of electrical work throughout the war zones. Dorgan said government and military leaders must work to ensure that contractors do “quality work that protects soldiers rather than endangering them.”
Casey said he plans to reach out to the Department of Defense to determine how to expedite electrical inspections in Afghanistan.
“I remain alarmed that the same problems are being found in Afghanistan and that there are not enough inspectors to quickly complete the inspections,” Casey said.
According to the inspector general’s report, limited inspections at select facilities at Bagram Air Field, Kandahar Air Field and Kabul in Afghanistan revealed hazards that include a lack of grounding, unprotected electrical components, use of undersized wire that could melt and catch fire, improper wire splicing, exposed wiring and failure to comply with the National Electrical Code.
In one instance at Spin Boldak, inspectors found that a sock was used as an electrical insulator, posing a fire hazard. At Camp Brown, inspectors found incorrect wiring performed by untrained workers.
The report indicated there is no comprehensive inventory of U.S.-controlled facilities in Afghanistan, nor is there a plan to detect and correct electrical deficiencies. Inspectors observed a shortage of resources such as money, qualified engineers, inspectors and electricians during the assessment.
Central Command took steps to reduce hazards in Afghanistan by making repairs and correcting electrical deficiencies, the report found. CENTCOM, in response to the report, noted that repairs are complete at several locations and estimated that work related to major discrepancies at Camp Brown and the base at Spin Boldak should be finished by mid-September.
Commanders agreed with the inspector general’s recommendation to provide electrical safety training to troops prior to their arrival in Afghanistan, where safety officers reported “many soldiers made electrical repairs on their own.” The command plans to implement a comprehensive reporting system for electrical shocks and confiscate soldiers’ power strips that do not contain built-in circuit breakers. (Click HERE to read original article)
Click HERE to read the Inspector General Report on Afghanistan electrical.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
By Paula Reed Ward, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
More than 19 months since her son, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, was electrocuted in the shower while serving with the Special Operations Task Force in Baghdad, Cheryl Harris finally has some sense of justice.
Yesterday, the inspector general of the Department of Defense issued a report proclaiming that the contractor tasked with performing facility maintenance at the Radwaniyah Palace in Baghdad, along with military leaders there, failed to properly perform its duties to ensure safety for servicemen and women stationed there and throughout Iraq.
“The results are revealing and contrary to what KBR and its president have continually stated over the last year,” Ms. Harris said. “The report says that KBR installed the water pump that killed my son — a point KBR has flatly denied for the past year.”
She has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against KBR Inc. in U.S. District Court, claiming that the military contractor tasked with providing facility maintenance and repairs at the former estate of Saddam Hussein is responsible for her son’s electrocution.
The case is currently on hold while KBR appeals a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Nora Barry Fischer denying the company’s motion to dismiss.
Following a great deal of congressional interest in Sgt. Maseth’s death, the inspector general’s office was tasked with reviewing it, along with 17 others.
Shaler native Sgt. Maseth, an Army Ranger and Green Beret, was electrocuted while in the shower on Jan. 2, 2008.
His mother contends that KBR failed to properly ground an electric water pump on the building’s rooftop. Sgt. Maseth was killed when it short-circuited.
In the summary of the report, the inspector general concluded that “multiple systems and organizations failed, leaving Staff Sgt. Maseth exposed to unacceptable risk.”
The report addresses KBR specifically, finding that the company installed the water pump in question in early June 2006. The company did not properly ground the equipment during its installation or report improperly grounded equipment during routine maintenance, the report said.
It notes that the Defense Contract Management Agency found more than 230 incidents of reported electric shocks in KBR-maintained facilities across Iraq from September 2006 through July 2008.
In addition, the inspector general found that KBR personnel at Radwaniyah had inadequate electrical training and expertise, and that facility maintenance records were incomplete and lacked specificity, precluding the identification and correction of systemic problems.
Other problems noted were a lack of standard operation procedures for the technical inspection of facilities and a failure to bring inconsistent contract specifications to the attention of the administrative contracting officer.
KBR, which has continually denied any responsibility for Sgt. Maseth’s death, had not seen the inspector general’s report and would not comment on it. However, Heather L. Browne, a spokeswoman, issued a statement saying that KBR informed the military that there was no grounding in the structure nine months before Sgt. Maseth was killed.
“Prior to that incident, the military never directed KBR to repair, upgrade or improve the grounding system in the building in which Maseth resided, nor was KBR directed to perform any preventative maintenance at this facility,” she said.
In its report, the inspector general identified a total of 18 electrocution deaths in Iraq, spanning from April 2004 to November 2008.
Nine of those, the report concluded, were people killed accidentally by touching or coming into contact with live power lines.
The other nine were the result of either faulty equipment or improper grounding.
As of June 30, the report said, five of those nine deaths were still under investigation.
As part of its investigation into Sgt. Maseth’s death, the inspector general collected more than 22,500 pages of documents, interviewed 60 people and did field work in Iraq last fall.
Among those outspoken on Sgt. Maseth’s death has been U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.
“There’s still work to be done regarding a full measure of accountability by KBR,” Mr. Casey said. “There has to be a definitive sanction of some kind.”
The senator could not expand on what that penalty might be, but he did note that there is an ongoing investigation into Sgt. Maseth’s death by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command.
“There’s a heightened level of gravity to that,” he said. “That may be the report that has teeth — potential penalties or sanctions.”
In the meantime, the inspector general’s report spells out a list of recommendations to prevent future fatalities. Those suggestions include increasing communication among commanders, base camp mayors and contractors regarding similar problems, as well as establishing facility maintenance standards for extended occupation of non-U.S.-built structures.
It also notes progress that has already been made in Iraq.
Trade workers employed by military contractors must now meet minimum professional competency requirements, and safety inspections of more than 75,000 structures in Iraq are expected to be completed by KBR in September.
“KBR wasn’t the only player in this tragedy that bears responsibility,” Mr. Casey said. “We have to ensure the U.S. government is working to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
“There’s plenty of work to be done.” (click HERE for the original article)
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