Law firms join forces to battle KBR on behalf of burn pit victims

February 26, 2010 — Ms Sparky

For Immediate Release

Media Contact:
Erin Powers
+1 281.703.6000 – phone
edp@powersmediaworks.com

Law Firms Motley Rice LLC and Burke PLLC Join Forces to Take on KBR and Halliburton on
Behalf of American Soldiers, Veterans and Civilians Exposed to
Burn Pit Hazards

Suit Claims Wartime Contractors Halliburton and KBR Knew Dangers of Burn Pit Exposure

CHARLESTON, S.C. – (February 24, 2010) Motley Rice LLC, one of the nation’s largest plaintiffs’ litigation firms, announces today that it has joined forces with Burke PLLC to jointly pursue claims for clients in the KBR, Inc., Burn Pit multidistrict litigation. The MDL encompasses suits against defense contractors who allegedly jeopardized the health and safety of thousands of American veterans, current service members and former contract employees by knowingly burning vast quantities of hazardous waste in open- air burn pits on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yesterday, the Honorable Roger W. Titus of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland provided the parties with briefing schedules and hearing dates, including one on the defendants’ motions to dismiss.

Named defendants include: KBR, Inc. of Houston (NYSE: KBR); Kellogg, Brown & Root LLC, of Austin, Texas; Kellogg, Brown & Root Services, Inc., of Houston, Texas; Turkish-based ERKA Ltd.; and Halliburton Company, of Houston, Texas. The collective claims against these defendants include those for battery, breach of contract, breach of duty to warn, future medical expenses, intentional infliction of emotional distress, medical monitoring, negligence and wrongful death.

“The U.S. government entered into a contract with and paid millions to defendants Halliburton and KBR to ensure that they implemented our country’s strict safety standards for waste disposal. We believe these contractors failed to hold up their end of the deal by ignoring these standards, and now thousands have been unnecessarily poisoned,” stated Motley Rice co-founder, Joe Rice. “Our soldiers and service members understood the potential risk of warfare but never expected the harm to come from those who were hired to protect them.” (Read the rest of the story here…)

Judge dismisses Indiana soldiers’ Iraq suit

February 26, 2010 — Ms Sparky

By Jon Murray – Posted: February 25, 2010
IndyStar.com

LTC James C. Gentry in Baghdad died of cancer in November 2009 after exposure to sodium dichromate at Qarmat Ali

A federal judge today dismissed a lawsuit accusing a large defense contractor of concealing the risks faced by nearly 140 Indiana National Guard soldiers potentially exposed to a cancer-causing agent in Iraq.

The ruling did not address any of the claims in the lawsuit, which could still be pursued elsewhere by the attorneys for the 47 Indiana Guard soldiers serving as plaintiffs. Chief Judge Richard L. Young ruled that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana lacks “personal jurisdiction” over Texas-based KBR and several related companies.
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The dismissal was based in part on a finding that the actions at issue in the suit took place outside Indiana even if the health effects are only being felt now. And the KBR companies’ limited contacts in Indiana — they have no offices here but have held contracts in Indiana — amount to an insufficient business footprint.

Mike Doyle, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said the legal team plans to file a new version of the lawsuit in another jurisdiction as soon as possible, but he did not specify where. (Read the rest of the story here…)

VA, DoD seek better data on burn-pit exposure

February 24, 2010 — Ms Sparky

By Kelly Kennedy – Staff writer – Army Times
Posted : Wednesday Feb 24, 2010 9:43:08 EST

As Veterans Affairs Department officials laid out a plan for the Institute of Medicine to look for links between certain symptoms and burn-pit exposure, they also quizzed Defense Department scientists about what they’ve already done in that regard.

“We have a particular need to solve this as best as we can,” said Victoria Cassano, acting director of VA’s Environmental Agents Service. “You tell us what the science is. You tell us what the evidence is. Do we have enough to [move] forward with a presumption or not?”

At the first meeting of the IOM’s Committee on the Long-Term Health Consequences of Exposure to Burn Pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, Cassano asked the panel to help VA determine if the symptoms of several sick service members could be linked to exposure to smoke from open-air burn pits in the war zones. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Arkansas veteran warns servicemen about the danger of “burn pits” in Iraq

February 23, 2010 — Ms Sparky

If you are having problems watching this video on MsSparky.com click HERE to watch at Channel 11. You can also read the transcript of the interview there as well.

Also, if you have a facebook account you have to check out the Burn Pits page run by Jill Wilkins. As you might recall, Jill is the widow of Major Kevin Wilkins who died of a brain tumor shortly after returning from Iraq. The burn victims could ask for no better champion for their cause!

Ms Sparky

David Isenberg: Supporting the Troops: Making Them Sick

February 21, 2010 — Ms Sparky

David Isenberg – Huffington Post
Author, Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq (Praeger Security International)
Posted: February 21, 2010 03:08 PM

The biggest portion of U.S. private military contractors has always been, by far, on the logistics, not the weapons bearing security side.

These contractors deliver fuel and supplies, construct bases, prepare meals at the DFAC (Dining Facility), clean laundry, provide interpreters, and a host of other unglamorous but vital jobs.

Most of the time they do it very well, under very difficult conditions. Many of their supporters herald this as an unprecedented achievement in American military history. Such a view has long been the sound bite for which Doug Brooks, head of the International Peace Operations Association, a leading industry trade group, is best known for, i.e., “We have the best supported, supplied military in any military operation in history.” Indeed, if you search online for Doug Brooks and that phrase you get 1,400,000 hits.

That is why this article in the Los Angeles Times earlier this week grabbed my attention. It described how numerous returning veterans have reported leukemia, lymphoma, congestive heart problems, neurological conditions, bronchitis, skin rashes and sleep disorders — all of which they attribute to burn pits on dozens of U.S. bases in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Items burned in the pits have included medical waste, plastics, computer parts, oil, lubricants, paint, tires and foam cups, according to soldiers and contractors. (Read the rest of the story here…)

The KBR killing fields subsidized by US tax dollars

February 21, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Why did Sgt. Thomas die?

By Matthew Hansen – Staff Writer
Omaha World Herald – February 21, 2010

Sgt. Klayton Thomas looked every bit the poster boy Marine as he strode into a military hospital last September to get his back checked.

He taught karate and earned his abs in the gym. He had survived a 2007 deployment to Iraq, even thrived during his prolonged stay in the middle of the then-treacherous Sunni Triangle. He rarely drank. He didn’t smoke. Life seemed perfect on this mid-September Thursday, if only his back would stop aching. The 25-year-old Columbus, Neb., native thought he had wrenched it playing soccer. Three months and 10 days later, he died in hospice care.

This much is known: Thomas succumbed to an unstoppable lung cancer that crushed his vertebrae, blitzed his bones and invaded his brain, dumbfounding doctors who had spent their entire careers treating the disease.

His death leaves a medical mystery, one similar to those posed by hundreds of other American military personnel battling exotic cancers or struggling with rare respiratory problems.
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This mystery begins in the unlikeliest of places: Iraqi “burn pits” — large, primitive landfills where contractors set trash aflame, causing ever-present black smoke to drift over dozens of U.S. military bases.

Health experts, a high-powered defense lawyer, Congress and even the president have taken notice, asking questions like Klayton Thomas’ parents and doctors asked in the weeks after he fell ill.

Why would an otherwise healthy young nonsmoker contract a cancer that generally haunts older smokers? Why did this cancer spread like wildfire when experts say its normal path can take years?

Simply put: Why did Sgt. Klayton Thomas die?

“We were scared to death when he went to Iraq, scared of a mortar attack, an IED,” said his mother, Connie Thomas of Columbus. “But nothing like this. Not in our wildest dreams.” (Read the rest of the story here…)

Veterans speak out against burn pits

February 19, 2010 — Ms Sparky

A range of health problems are linked to the pits on military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. Toxic substances have been found in the smoke.

By David Zucchino
Los Angeles Times – February 18, 2010

A military environmental agency that tested air samples from Balad in 2007 found dioxins, metals, volatile organic compounds and other toxic substances in the smoke. (U.S. Air Force)

The noxious smoke plumes that wafted over the military base in Balad, Iraq, alarmed Lt. Col. Michelle Franco. The stench from a huge burn pit clung to her clothing, skin and hair.

“I remember thinking: This doesn’t look good, smell good or taste good,” Franco said recently. “I knew it couldn’t be good for anybody.”

She wheezed and coughed constantly. When Franco returned to the U.S., she was diagnosed with reactive airway dysfunction syndrome. She is no longer able to serve as an Air Force nurse.

Other returning veterans have reported leukemia, lymphoma, congestive heart problems, neurological conditions, bronchitis, skin rashes and sleep disorders — all of which they attribute to burn pits on dozens of U.S. bases in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The military needs to step up and address this problem,” said John Wilson of the advocacy group Disabled American Veterans, which maintains a registry of more than 500 veterans with disorders they blame on burn pits. The fumes emanating from the pits, he warned, could become the Agent Orange of the current war zone.

Items burned in the pits have included medical waste, plastics, computer parts, oil, lubricants, paint, tires and foam cups, according to soldiers and contractors. Some say amputated body parts from Iraqi patients were burned in Balad, site of a large U.S. military hospital. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Senator Wyden fights for Oregon vets exposed at Qarmat Ali in Iraq

February 19, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Veterans exposed to hexavalent chromium deserve lifelong health care and Purple Hearts, Sen. Ron Wyden says
By Julie Sullivan, The Oregonian
February 18, 2010, 8:45PM

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden watches as Larry Roberta, an Oregon veteran who suffers breathing and stomach problems from exposure to hexavalent chromium, coughs during a news conference in Portland. "There was no way to get away from it,'' Roberta said. "Our job was to watch KBR's back and make sure they were OK." (the Oregonian)

Veterans exposed to cancer-causing hexavalent chromium in Iraq — including nearly 300 Oregon soldiers — should be treated as if they’d hit a roadside bomb and receive lifelong medical care and Purple Hearts, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden said Thursday.

Ten Oregon Army National Guard veterans who were exposed to the chemical while protecting war contractor KBR’s employees stood with the Oregon Democrat a news conference to acknowledge their “invisible wounds” and to hold the contractor accountable. When one veteran began to cough violently and struggled for breath at the podium, Wyden’s alarm turned to outrage.

“Precautions should have been taken and they were not, that is inexcusable,” Wyden said. “That soldiers have become critically ill and suffer respiratory diseases and skin rashes that, again, is inexcusable.” (Read the rest of the story here…)

The Army made us burn it!

February 13, 2010 — Ms Sparky

KBR Tells Court It Was Following Military Orders When Employees Burned Toxic Waste in Open Pits
The military’s largest contractor is trying to avoid liability for health risks associated with burn pits to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the truth is emerging.

by Nora Eisenberg/Alternet
February 12, 2010 |

Balad Burn Pits

In October a class action suit combining 22 lawsuits from 43 states was filed in US District Court in Maryland against KBR, Halliburton, and other military contractors for damages to health from open air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to plaintiffs’ lawyers the military contracting giant had been paid millions of dollars to safely dispose of waste on bases but negligently burned refuse in open pits, spewing toxins, including known carcinogens, into the air. Last week, KBR sought to dismiss the charges. Their tack was not to deny that they burned lithium batteries, petroleum, asbestos, trucks, cars, paint, plastic, Styrofoam, medical waste including human limbs, and more, as the soldiers have charged, but to challenge their liability for any ensuing problems. According to KBR’s press fact sheet on the suit, the Army, not KBR, decides if a burn pit or an incinerator will be used, where it will be built in relation to living and working facilities, and what it can burn. KBR insists it was and is still just “performing under the direction and control of military commanders in the field.” In short, they were only following orders and the soldiers are going after the wrong guy. (Read the rest of the story here…)

KBR asks judge to throw out Oregon soldiers suit

February 8, 2010 — Forseti

Photo from Oregon National Guard Website

February 08, 2010

Lawyers for the war contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root on Monday asked a federal judge to dismiss an Oregon Army National Guard soldiers’ lawsuit against it, saying the court in Oregon lacks jurisdiction.

The challenge before U.S. District Judge Paul Papak in Portland is being watched closely in Indiana and West Virginia where National Guard soldiers have also sued KBR, Inc. The Houston-based holding company and its four subsidiaries won contracts to restore oil production after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. National Guard troops were ordered to guard KBR employees as they raced to get the oil flowing. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Iraq chemical exposure lawsuit against KBR goes global

February 5, 2010 — Ms Sparky

British veteran joins W.Va. National Guard lawsuit

By Andrew Clevenger – February 4, 2010
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A retired sergeant of the Royal Air Force has joined members of the West Virginia National Guard in a lawsuit alleging that they were exposed to a toxic chemical by a government contractor in Iraq in 2003, becoming the first British veteran to sue over the exposure.

In an amended complaint filed Thursday in federal court in West Virginia’s Northern District, Andrew M. Tosh, 44, of Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, maintains that officials with KBR Inc. knew about dangerous levels of sodium dichromate, a potent carcinogen, at the Qarmat Ali water-treatment plant months before they informed American and British troops guarding the facility. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Death & Denial – The KBR legacy lives on

January 6, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Soldiers Fight in the Courts Over Liability in War Zones

By DIONNE SEARCEY – JANUARY 7, 2010

LTC James C. Gentry Indiana National Guard Commander died November 26, 2009 of exposure to sodium dichromate from Qarmat Ali

A recent lawsuit brought by a group of Indiana National Guardsman spotlights a controversial legal doctrine that prevents soldiers on active duty from seeking compensation for injuries sustained in war zones.

The guardsman allege that a mission to help clean up a water treatment plant in southern Iraq left them with what they say are potentially fatal illnesses.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Indiana, the Guardsmen allege that oil company KBR Inc. “disregarded and downplayed” the fact that the site at Qarmat Ali was coated with the hazardous chemical sodium dichromate. They were exposed, they say, to the chemical that is used as an industrial anti-corrosive agent to protect pipes.

As a result, the soldiers suffered “unprotected, unknowing, direct exposure to one of the most potent carcinogens and mutagenic substances known to man,” alleges the suit, which seeks monetary compensation for health problems the soldiers say they have suffered. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Ms Sparky’s “Top 10″ villainous blogging inspirations for 2009

January 1, 2010 — Ms Sparky

!HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What would the end of the year be without a “Top 10″ list? I have seen “Top 10″ best, “Top 10″ worst and just about every other “Top 10″ list you can think of. So I decided I would create my very own. It was difficult to decide on just what I should “Top 10″. Should I “Top 10″ DoD contractor scandals, indictments, lawsuits and hearings? That would be more like a “Top 100″. Then it came to me. Why not honor, or at least recognize, those who have unintentionally inspired me and provided me with the fertile soil (aka bull sh*t) that has allowed the seeds of disbelief, disgust and disdain to flourish in my posts at MsSparky.com.

Here is my “Top 10″ list of those who kept me fired up, pissed off and the keyboard smokin’ in 2009:

10. Bruce Stanski – who resigned from KBR and before the ink was dry on his resignation letter, slithered on over to Fluor. More and more of Stanski’s KBR comrades have joined “Team Fluor” now known as KBR East. Hello Fluor!! Let’s not forget that Bruce Almighty was at the helm of KBR when the majority of fraud, waste, abuse and other crimes were being committed. If you lie down with dogs, expect to get fleas!

9. DynCorp - who appears to be on the brink of losing their piece of LOGCAP IV due in part to their recruiting of managers from the cesspool of former KBR managers and supervisors. (Are you paying attention Fluor?) Dyncorp has also provided us with an abundance of disgruntled disheartened employees who are more than willing to spill the beans! (Read the rest of the story here…)

KBR knowingly exposes soldiers and employees to toxic poison (NBC video)

December 31, 2009 — Ms Sparky

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

(Read the rest of the story here…)

6 years after Iraq, hexavalent chromium exposure weighs on veteran

December 28, 2009 — Forseti

Guy Naylor & Family

By Julie Sullivan
December 28, 2009
ROCKAWAY — The Naylor living room is all playroom, cleared to toddle, cuddle and roll. But when Dad’s home, the children often head to the back bedroom to play quietly with Mom.

Six years after Guy Naylor returned from Iraq, he can’t stand the clamor of his own family. The soft-spoken dialysis technician shouted at other drivers so often, his family moved to Rockaway to escape Portland traffic. The medic who ran every day has gained 80 pounds. Joint pain wakes him. He coughs so much, his patients constantly ask if he has a cold. He swallows nine different medications a day. Up from none. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Pentagon promises study on burn pits

December 26, 2009 — Ms Sparky

By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes – Mideast edition
Saturday, December 26, 2009

WASHINGTON — Military health officials who have steadfastly denied that burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan cause serious health problems will launch a massive study next year to see if they’re wrong.

Officially, the Pentagon still says the toxic smoke from the pits is not to blame for the fatal cancers and respiratory illnesses suffered by some troops upon returning from the war zones. But Dr. Craig Postlewaite, director of the Defense Department’s Force Health Protection programs, said that researchers “are keeping the door open” on the issue.

“When we look at the health outcome data of those exposed [to the burn pits] we’re not seeing a great increase in respiratory illnesses,” he said in an interview with Stars and Stripes this week. “But we’ve become aware in the last several months that there have been a handful of conditions diagnosed by military physicians where they’ve indicated there could be an inhalational exposure cause.” (Read the rest of the story here…)

Burn pit data worthless, expert says

December 19, 2009 — Ms Sparky

Burn pit at Abu Ghraib

By Kelly Kennedy – Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 18, 2009 17:27:31 EST

The airman who first raised health concerns over burn pits at Joint Base Balad in Iraq says the Defense Department data — which officials used to say the burn pits cause no known long-term health effects — is worthless.

And Air Force Lt. Col Darrin Curtis, a bioenvironmental flight commander who retired in November, is the one who created the plan to collect the air specimens near the plume.

“You could only sample so much,” he said Friday. “I think it’s more than difficult; it’s impossible. It would cost as much to bring in incinerators as it would to do an adequate study.”

When they set up the sampling equipment, he said the smoke flew up in a 90-degree plume away from the air collectors. The equipment instead collected much cleaner air. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Military: Burn pits could cause long-term damage to troops

December 19, 2009 — Ms Sparky

Smoke from Balad burn pits behind hanger

By Adam Levine, CNN Pentagon Producer
December 18, 2009 8:36 a.m. EST

Washington (CNN) — The military is backing off its previous position and acknowledging that some troops exposed to the burning of refuse on military bases could be susceptible to long-term health effects.

Since the issue first arose two years ago, Pentagon health officials have insisted that, based on its analysis, troops who were near burn pits at Joint Base Balad in Iraq — the largest base in that country — faced no long-term health hazards. That covered most of the troops who passed through the base. (Read the rest of the story here…)

The Burn Pit Contracts: KBR and the Army (DC Bureau Video)

December 16, 2009 — Ms Sparky

Another awesome report from the DC Bureau. This video was created by Katie Manning, a multimedia journalist for DC Bureau. If you are having problems viewing this video here. Click HERE to view it at DC Bureau.

DC Bureau

US Military backs down from steadfast denial

December 15, 2009 — Ms Sparky

Military: Burn pits caused illnesses

Open burning has since been banned but many may face long-term effects.

By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 12/15/2009 12:41:38 AM MST

Working in the Balad Burn pit

Backing away from steadfast official denial, the U.S. military’s senior health protection official said Monday that some service members might suffer long-term medical problems as a direct result of exposure to smoke and fumes from open-air burn pits scattered throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.

Physician Craig Postlewaite, director of Force Health Protection and Readiness Programs, said that while scientific evidence has yet to prove the link, the personal stories of veterans coming forward to report long-term health problems have convinced him of the connection.

“We feel at this point in time that it’s quite plausible — in fact likely — that there are a small number of people that have been affected with longer-term health problems,” Postlewaite said Monday in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune. (Read the rest of the story here…)

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