Sodium dichromate has been linked to a range of illnesses
Seven former British soldiers are suing an American defence firm, accusing it of exposing them to dangerous levels of toxic chemicals in Iraq.
The men were providing security at a water plant near Basra where sodium dichromate was discovered.
They claim that its operator, Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), failed to protect them from the substance.
The men join 98 US soldiers suing KBR. It denies the allegations, saying necessary precautions were taken.
“If I’d have known what I now know, I would not have gone on that site and I would not have made my men operate on that site,” says Andy Tosh. (Read the rest of the story here…)
Two U.S. military officials deployed to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, two Department of Defense (DOD) contractors and a contracting company were charged late yesterday for their roles in an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme related to the award of a DOD trucking services contract in Afghanistan, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni for the District of Hawaii.
According to an indictment returned on June 8, 2010, in U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, retired U.S. Army Sgt. Charles O. Finch, 44, of Hawaii, accepted a $50,000 bribe in the fall of 2004 to influence the award of a DOD trucking contract to AZ Corporation, an Afghan contracting company. The indictment alleges that the owners of AZ Corporation, brothers Assad John Ramin, 40, and Tahir Ramin, 32, both of Pennsylvania, offered the bribe to Finch. According to the indictment, the bribe was paid through the business account of Finch’s roommate at Bagram, 1st Sgt. Gary M. Canteen, 41, of Delaware, to disguise the nature and source of the payment. Canteen allegedly passed on a portion of the funds to Finch. According to the indictment, shortly after the money was delivered to Canteen, Finch recommended the award of the contract to AZ Corporation, which was awarded the contract. (Read the rest of the story here…)
Is this "no award fee" the equivalent of a good old fashioned DoD spanking?
Below is a recent article from Bloomberg Business Week. It’s obvious KBR is trying to spin this pathetic award fee into something positive for their shareholders. The fact of the matter is, of the $123.8M available for award fee for the 7 quarters listed below, including the first quarter of 2008 when SSG Ryan Maseth was killed, KBR actually lost $84.7M in available awards. Of the $123.8M available for those quarters, KBR was awarded $39.1M a mere 32% of what was available. KBR has enjoyed unchallenged award fees in the 90% of total fee available for years. That doesn’t really sound like a job well done to me!
KBR profits are based on award fees. Although the Army just awarded them a $568M contract for LOGCAP IV (for whatever reason), no award fee means NO PROFIT for KBR! ~ Ms Sparky
KBR Loses $24.1 Million Bonus Over Green Beret’s Death in Iraq
June 09, 2010, 10:22 AM EDT
By Tony Capaccio
June 9 (Bloomberg) — KBR Inc., the largest contractor in Iraq, lost all of its potential bonus — $24.1 million — for the first four months of 2008 because it was found partly to blame for the accidental electrocution of a Green Beret.
This is the first time KBR lost its entire performance fee since the company won the contract in 2001 to support U.S. troops, Army Contracting Command spokesman Daniel Carlson said.
Houston-based KBR has received orders from this contract totaling $35.7 billion to date. Its profit comes from a base fee of 1 percent and periodic bonuses based on criteria such as quality of work and its control over cost and schedule.
Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth of the 5th Special Forces Group was electrocuted while showering on Jan. 2, 2008, in part because the shower’s electrical pump wasn’t properly grounded when installed less than two years before, the Pentagon inspector general reported on July 27, 2009.
The report criticized the Army’s oversight of Maseth’s compound, saying his death “was the catastrophic result of the failure of multiple systems exposing U.S. personnel to unnecessary risk.”
Army commanders, the Army contracting command and KBR were all “responsible for the use and physical condition” of the compound, the report said.
“KBR did not ground equipment during installation or report improperly grounded equipment identified during routine maintenance” at the facility starting in February 2006, thereby “perpetuating electrical hazards,” the report found.
Accidental Death
The death was ruled accidental and KBR wasn’t found criminally negligent. Maseth’s mother, Cheryl A. Harris, in March 2008 filed a wrongful death suit against KBR. A federal judge last year denied a KBR dismissal motion. The case is pending in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.
The Army’s decision to deny KBR’s bonus followed a Jan. 7 report from its audit agency, which conducted its own investigation as well as reviewing the Pentagon inspector general’s report and the findings of an Army Criminal Investigation Command probe.
The $24.1 million wasn’t rolled into the subsequent award- fee period so KBR can’t earn it back, Carlson said in an e-mail.
KBR spokeswoman Gabriela Segura said the company was notified Feb. 19 that the fee wouldn’t be paid but hasn’t seen the Army audit “so it would be inappropriate to comment” at this time.
“We requested access to all information used so that we are better able to understand” the decision and “to determine whether there are additional actions that we might take,” she said.
KBR’s performance improved enough in the subsequent bonus periods from May 2008 through August 2009 for the Army to pay it $39.1 million of the $99.7 million available, or about 40 percent, according to the contracting command.
The Army announced May 6 that KBR received a new order worth as much as $568 million to continue to provide services in Iraq such as housing, meals, laundry, showers, water purification and bathroom cleaning. (Click HERE for original article)
Updated June 16, 2010: Funeral Services information can be found HERE.
From: DynNews
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2010 10:19 PM
Subject: Two Killed in Attack on Afghanistan Police Training Facility
Two Killed in Attack on Afghanistan Police Training Facility
June 8, 2010 – An American police mentor and a Nepalese security guard working under DynCorp International’s Afghan police training contract were tragically killed yesterday, when insurgents attacked a police training facility in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Gary W. Willard, 44, of Resaca, Georgia, deployed to Afghanistan as a police mentor on June 22, 2009. Prior to his work in Afghanistan, he was a sergeant with the Calhoun Police Department in Georgia. Earlier, he spent almost ten years with the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office in Dalton, Georgia. Before his law enforcement career he was a member of the United States Marine Corps.
Hit Bahadur Gurung, 39, of Nepal worked as a security guard at the Kandahar police training facility.
“These men supported the mission in Afghanistan with courage, honor and excellence, and gave their lives in pursuit of a more secure Afghanistan,” says CEO Bill Ballhaus. “We extend our deepest sympathies to their families, loved ones and colleagues.”
(This article is from an Irish newspaper. That’s why the American is being referred to as a foreign national. )
Two killed in Afghan raid
Two foreign nationals were killed in a suicide bomb and commando attack on an Afghan police training centre in Kandahar today, officials said.
An American and another unidentified foreigner, both with the US security firm DynCorp, which is contracted to help with police training, were killed in the attack.
The Kandahar governor’s spokesman said one suspected Taliban insurgent blew himself up, blasting open the gates of the training centre and allowing two other insurgents to enter and start a gunfight before they were killed.
The Taliban insurgency is at its height since the Islamist group were overthrown in a US-led invasion in 2001.
US-led NATO forces are planning an offensive on Kandahar and its environs in the coming months, mixing a troop surge with governance and development projects. (click HERE for the original article)
As I get more information on this I will let you know. I don’t know yet if these were LOGCAP or CIVPOL employees for sure. My condolences to the friends, families and co-workers of the latest victims of these cowardly terrorists.
Ms Sparky
As many of you will remember MsSparky.com broke this story on Anna Mayo’s brutal rape and assault on December 4, 2009. Naturally we would not disclose her name at that time. There has been some speculation that Anna was somehow related to KBR’s #1 LOGCAP IV Manager, Principal Program Manager Mike Mayo. I have been informed by Anna’s attorney, Todd Kelly this is not the case.
KBR employee Anna Mayo, Age 27 Photo taken after attack at Joint Base Balad in Iraq (Courtesy of Kelly Law Firm)
By MARK SCHONE
June 3, 2010
Anna Mayo’s Lawsuit Is The Latest In A Series Against Military Contractor
According to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Houston Wednesday, Anna Mayo was working at KBR’s facility in Balad in November 2009 when she was assaulted by an unnamed rapist who worked for KBR. She charges that she was choked unconscious with a rope, beaten and raped. The suit seeks damages from KBR and from KBR subsidiary Service Employees International Inc., the contractor that employed Mayo from 2008 to 2009. (Read the rest of the story here…)
U.S. Embassy in Iraq missing property worth millionsThe supplies might be lost, they might be stolen, but the wasted money is clear-cut
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Wednesday, Jun 2, 2010 16:57 ET
Tens of millions of dollars in federal property is missing or unaccounted for at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the largest U.S. diplomatic mission abroad, according to an internal State Department audit released Wednesday.
The report from the department’s inspector general found that 159 of the embassy’s 1,168 vehicles, worth $18.5 million, are unaccounted for.
The report said 282 vehicles worth $40.4 million have not been properly registered, and $2.3 million in other property, including furniture and other office equipment, is missing.
The audit doesn’t say whether the missing property has been lost or stolen, but it says the failure to account for the items is unacceptable.
Auditors also found that the embassy is paying nearly $270,000 per year in charges for more than 2,000 cell phones that have not been registered to authorized users. The report said the embassy could save more than $740,000 a year by disconnecting unassigned and underused cell phones and limiting international calls.
In addition, the report said the embassy has 1,000 more hand-held radios than it is using and could save $936,000 if they were sent to posts where they are needed.
“Embassy Baghdad has had difficulty controlling and accurately accounting for its U.S. government property,” said the audit, which was conducted between July and November of last year. It noted the difficulties of doing so in a war zone, a move to a new compound and frequent staff changes. But it said that the inventories should have been done.
A response from the embassy said much of the data used by the inspector general was outdated or incomplete and that steps had been taken to correct many of the deficiencies.
Aside from the missing or unaccounted items, the audit also found approximately $2.3 million worth of property stored in warehouses or shipping containers that “should be considered excess” and returned or sent to other missions.
That included 1,069 chairs worth $275,276, 631 televisions worth $451,550, 614 mattresses worth $122,418, 681 tables worth $173,899 and 563 DVD players worth $29,214. (click HERE for original article)
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