» No Conractor Left Behind Part IV: Congress’s Powerless Probe Ms Sparky

No Conractor Left Behind Part IV: Congress’s Powerless Probe

October 16, 2009 — Ms Sparky

No Contractor Left Behind is a series by DC Bureau.org chronicling how a toxic time bomb followed three Army National Guard units home from Iraq. It reveals how a notorious military contractor (KBR) exposed American soldiers to a cancer-causing carcinogen on the battlefield and how the Pentagon tried to downplay the consequences. And it describes how Congress has relegated its investigation to a toothless forum that lacks the political clout and oversight powers to ensure effective accountability.

Click HERE to read No Contractor Left Behind Part I: KBR, the Pentagon and the Soldiers Who Paid – October 5, 2009
The first of a multi-part account of how KBR management knowingly exposed not only their own employees but hundreds of US Army National Guard troops, British Soldiers and local Iraqi citizens to to the toxic carcinogen known as sodium dichromate at Qarmat Ali in southern Iraq.

Click HERE to read No Contractor Left Behind Part II: KBR’s Negligence - October 7, 2009

In 2003, as part of project RIO, U.S. soldiers would accompany contractors into Iraq from Kuwait as they assessed southern oil sites, including Qarmat Ali. Their orders forbade them from leaving KBR personnel alone at any time. Even when they were working, soldiers had to remain an arm’s length away—which not only exposed them to whatever chemical elements the contractors uncovered during their work, it allowed KBR managers ample time to notify them of any potential health risks.

Click HERE to read No Contractor Left Behind Part III: “Just Suck It Up and Move On” – October 9, 2009

Military Exposure Guidelines permissible exposure limit for chromium: 5,700 parts per million.

Chromium soil concentrations found by KBR samples at Qarmat Ali on August 7, 2003: 16,459 parts per million.

Like KBR, the military failed to look after its own at Qarmat Ali.

“Unfortunately,” Sgt. Russell Powell said in Congressional testimony, “many of the soldiers who served at Qarmat Ali are paying the consequences for the Army’s failure to warn and protect the troops.”

At the treatment plant, as soldiers expressed concerns about sodium dichromate, the military brass remained taciturn and downplayed the danger posed by the chemical. Once the toxic conditions at Qarmat Ali were revealed, the Army relied on a questionable and surreptitiously administered medical test to fend off claims of a hazard, and used the results to deny health care for exposed veterans.

Click HERE to read No Contractor Left Behind Part IV: Congress’s Powerless Probe – October 13, 2009

“When you have contractors that have demonstrated that they have fleeced the government agency or the taxpayer, I don’t think there should be a slap on the wrist or a pat on the back. They should be debarred. …This is the most significant waste and fraud in the history of our country. It’s not even close.” Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND)

Thank God for Senator Dorgan and the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. If they had not investigated this and brought it to the attention of the DoD and media, how many soldiers would be dying and not know why?

Ms Sparky