» Reports & Investigations

Spc. Beyshee Velez court-martialed for the murder of KBR employee Lucas Trent Vinson

March 13, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Lucas "Trent" Vinson

Soldier court-martialed in man’s killing in Iraq

The trial for Spc. Beyshee Velez will likely take place this summer

By Gregg K. Kakesako-Star Bulletin
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 13, 2010

A 31-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier will face a general court-martial, probably this summer, for allegedly killing a civilian contractor after a daylong standoff at a military base in Iraq last year.

In one of his first actions since assuming command of the 25th Infantry Division last month, Maj. Gen. Bernard Champoux ordered this week that Spc. Beyshee Velez, a combat medic who has served three tours in Iraq, face a court-martial for the death of Lucas T. Vinson, an employee of Houston-based KBR, near Tikrit on Sept. 13. KBR provides services including housing, meals, mail delivery and laundry.

Velez is charged with two counts of murder, one count of trying to elude Air Force security forces and three counts of assault. The Army said that although Velez has been charged with two different counts of murder, he could be convicted of only one of the murder specifications. That charge will be determined by the judge presiding over the court-martial, said Maj. Cathy Wilkinson, an Army spokeswoman.

The Army has said murder carries a maximum sentence of a dishonorable discharge and life confinement. Assault with a deadly weapon carries a maximum sentence of dishonorable discharge and eight years’ confinement. Fleeing apprehension carries a maximum sentence of a bad-conduct discharge and one year of confinement.

Velez was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd “Bronco” Brigade Combat Team, when the shooting occurred at Contingency Operating Base Speicher. Velez has been held at the brig on Ford Island since the shooting.

His defense attorney, Phil Cave, has argued that Velez was mentally unstable when he shot Vinson, 27, with his M-4 carbine.

During a weeklong pretrial hearing last month at Wheeler Army Airfield, Cave questioned a report by a three-member Army mental health board that ruled Velez was competent to face a court-martial.

Cave described Velez as “a family person” who spent a lot of money taking care of his mother, sister and nephew and who came from a family whose members “slept on the street” and had a history of bipolar disorder and suicide.

His defense attorney, Phil Cave, has argued that Velez was mentally unstable when he shot Vinson, 27, with his M-4 carbine.

During a weeklong pretrial hearing last month at Wheeler Army Airfield, Cave questioned a report by a three-member Army mental health board that ruled Velez was competent to face a court-martial.

Another Army officer pleads guilty to bribery – where’s the honor?

March 13, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Ex-Army officer expected to plead guilty to bribery

By Guillermo Contreras – Express-News
March 12, 2010

A former Army lieutenant colonel plans to plead guilty next month to charges that he accepted bribes in Iraq to rig an $11.7 million warehouse contract from a company accused of bribing another officer from San Antonio.

The Justice Department filed charges Feb. 26 against retired Lt. Col. Kevin A. Davis, who is cooperating, as part of a deal he struck to avoid having his case go before a grand jury, records obtained by the San Antonio Express-News show.

Davis is scheduled to plead guilty April 13 in Washington, D.C., to three bribery charges for accepting expensive airplane tickets and $50,000 from an American-run company in Kuwait. The company has been administratively blackballed over allegations that it also bribed other military officers, including then-Army Maj. John Cockerham.

Cockerham, who was based at Fort Sam Houston, is serving 171/2 years in federal prison for taking $9.6 million in bribes from several companies in a separate scheme in which he diverted bottled-water contracts to those companies.

Cockerham served between mid-2004 and late 2005 as a contracting officer at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, a staging post for troops in Iraq and where the corruption was so prevalent it embarrassed the Pentagon and resulted in congressional hearings.

Before Cockerham’s arrival in Kuwait, Davis was in Iraq and the senior member of a military team responsible for reviewing contracts relating to the management of warehouses for U.S. forces throughout Iraq.

In March 2004, court records said, Davis met with representatives of “Contractor A” to discuss the company’s interest in a warehouse contract. Though those court records do not identify Contractor A, other court papers and investigation reports identify it as American Logistics Services, which was run at the time by George H. Lee of Alabama.

He later broke off to form his own company, Lee Dynamics Inc., also implicated in corruption.

Court records show the meeting resulted in a tit-for-tat proposal in which the contractor would reward Davis with “gifts” in exchange for Davis and others on the selection teams giving “Contractor A” the $8.2 million contract through a rigged selection process. A month after the contract was awarded, it was increased to $11.7 million.

The contractor, in exchange, bought Davis a $2,500 business-class roundtrip ticket to Venice, Italy, and a $10,000 first-class, one-way ticket from Kuwait to the United States and also gave him $50,000 in cash, court records said.

Davis later went to work for Lee Dynamics as its “business development manager,” according to company documents.

An officer he oversaw at the Army, Lt. Col. Levonda J. Selph, pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges that she accepted a trip to Thailand and a truck as gifts totaling $9,000 from Lee Dynamics in 2005 for bid-rigging acts that ensured its warehouse contract was renewed.

Selph is cooperating and awaiting sentencing.

George Lee and his son, Justin W. Lee, are accused by the Army but have not been charged of bribing other military contracting officers, including Cockerham and Maj. Gloria Davis, whose tour overlapped with Cockerham’s at Camp Arifjan.

Gloria Davis, no relation to Kevin Davis, killed herself in December 2006 after admitting to investigators that she took $225,000 in bribes from Lee Dynamics, records show.

Lee Dynamics and the Lees have been barred from contracting with the U.S. government.

Their Los Angeles-based lawyer, Gerard Casale, declined to comment Friday. (click HERE for original article)

Internal report issues black eye for U.S. Embassy in Kabul

March 11, 2010 — Ms Sparky

By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY
March 10, 2010

WASHINGTON — The State Department is failing to properly oversee nearly $2 billion in contracts to battle the drug trade, build infrastructure and train police in Afghanistan, according to a bluntly worded internal assessment.

The report by the department’s inspector general questions whether the U.S. will be able to stabilize the country in time to meet President Obama’s goal of withdrawing some troops by June 2011.

“Embassy oversight of contracts and grants is seriously inhibited by the dangerous security conditions … as well as by the shortage of qualified contract officer representatives in Kabul,” says the report, released last week. The embassy “faces serious challenges in meeting the administration’s deadline for ’success’ in Afghanistan,” it adds.

The embassy, which reports to special representative Richard Holbrooke, says the report is generally “accurate in its assessments,” spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in an e-mail from Kabul. “We are already implementing a great majority of the report’s recommendations.”

That includes better contract oversight, said Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew. “We’re very much aware of the problems that developed in Iraq and are working to avoid outcomes that would be problematic,” he said.

In a January cable reported by The New York Times, U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, who runs the embassy, questioned whether the military could meet its timeline for turning over the country to Afghan forces.

The ambassador and his team “have made impressive progress,” the report acknowledges. It attributes some problems to the rapid expansion of the embassy’s staff, which is growing from 320 to 900 with 100% turnover from the Bush administration. Other key criticisms:

• Frequent visits by senior officials and members of Congress divert diplomats from crucial counterinsurgency tasks.

• The embassy doesn’t have enough people to carry out anti-corruption and outreach initiatives.

• No one on the public affairs and website staff speaks Pashto, the language of the areas being contested in the counterinsurgency.

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction recently blasted the State Department’s oversight of a $2.5 billion contract with DynCorp to train Iraq’s police force, saying invoices were paid with no assurance the work was done correctly. The problem is being repeated in Afghanistan, this new report says.

Because of security concerns, diplomats often can’t visit training sites or other U.S. taxpayer-funded projects, the report says. Just five contract officers in Kabul “cannot provide effective oversight” of $1.8 billion in contracts, the report says. Two officers have since been added, Hayden said.

The report also undercuts a key example cited by Holbrooke as part of his pledge to reduce the government’s reliance on contractors for reconstruction and aid projects. In discussing that change, Holbrooke has repeatedly cited his canceling of a $30 million contract for women’s programs. He said he gave the money to the Kabul embassy.

However, the embassy doesn’t have people to oversee the grants, the audit says. While the embassy hired more staff, Hayden said, it also had to hire a Washington-based contractor to administer the program because Afghan organizations lacked the “internal controls” required to receive direct U.S. funding. (click HERE for original article)

Keep in mind this is the same group of State Department employees who was overseeing ArmorGroup aka “Guards Gone Wild” the security subcontractor at the US Embassy in Kabul.

Judge rules against Army in favor of KBR and the retired General who has sold his soul for $650.00hr

March 4, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Ex-commander in Iraq to give deposition in KBR case

By MARY FLOOD – March 3, 2010, 11:03PM

Despite the Army’s efforts to block it, retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who once led U.S. forces in Iraq, is scheduled to be deposed today as an expert for KBR in a lawsuit over a deadly civilian truck convoy attack in Iraq.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Johnson refused Wednesday to grant the Army’s request to prevent Sanchez from giving his expert opinions in the case.

Drivers and family members suing KBR contend the company should have stopped the convoys when it was warned that attacks would increase on April 9, 2004, the first anniversary of the day allies in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq reached Baghdad.

Sanchez, who at $650 an hour is already owed about $91,000 in expert fees, says KBR is not at fault for the six deaths and other injuries.

Sanchez wrote a report saying it was an Army communication error that led the attacked convoys to go down a road some in the military knew was supposed to be closed to civilian traffic. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Not so fast KBR – Lawmakers demand answers from Pentagon

March 3, 2010 — Forseti

Lawmakers challenge Army decisions on KBR

By Andrea Shalal-Esa – 7:31pm EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday questioned the Army’s continued use of KBR Inc for logistics work in Iraq in the face of confirmed reports of poor past performance.

Representative Edolphus Towns, who heads the House Oversight Committee, wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates to question the Army’s decision to award KBR a new contract valued at up to $2.8 billion despite a wide array of problems.

Towns, citing problems with KBR’s maintenance of electrical systems at bases where U.S. troops were fatally electrocuted and “numerous allegations of waste, fraud, and abuse,” asked Gates to provide the committee with a wide array of documents about the KBR contract by March 17.

“It seems inconceivable to me that the Defense Department would award this new contract to KBR in Iraq,” Towns said, citing the company’s “poor past performance.”

“When multiple deaths of service men and women are not enough to preclude the award of a new contract, it makes me wonder what it takes for a contractor to be fired.” (Read the rest of the story here…)

Pentagon estimates 90% of sexual assaults go unreported

March 1, 2010 — Ms Sparky

The War Within

Monday, Mar. 08, 2010
By NANCY GIBBS – Time Magazine

What does it tell us that female soldiers deployed overseas stop drinking water after 7 p.m. to reduce the odds of being raped if they have to use the bathroom at night? Or that a soldier who was assaulted when she went out for a cigarette was afraid to report it for fear she would be demoted — for having gone out without her weapon? Or that, as Representative Jane Harman puts it, “a female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.”

The fight over “Don’t ask, don’t tell” made headlines this winter as an issue of justice and history and the social evolution of our military institutions. We’ve heard much less about another set of hearings in the House Armed Services Committee. Maybe that’s because too many commanders still don’t ask, and too many victims still won’t tell, about the levels of violence endured by women in uniform. (Read the rest of the story here…)

German company Ecolog accused of drug smuggling in Afghanistan

February 26, 2010 — Ms Sparky

February 26, 2010

Ecolog works for ISAF troops in Afghanistan A German waste management firm employed by the NATO mission in Afghanistan has been accused of involvement in drug smuggling. Allegations against Ecolog and the Macedonian family behind it date back to the war in Kosovo.

Allegations have surfaced that a German-based company contracted by NATO’s ISAF troops in Afghanistan may have been involved in smuggling drugs out of the country.

“There is a chance that drugs or other such things have been smuggled,” NATO General Egon Ramms, chief at ISAF headquarters in the Netherlands told German public broadcaster NDR. (Read the rest of the story here…)

KBR adds another retired General to its ranks @ $650.00 an hour

February 26, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Army tries to halt retired general’s work as KBR expert

By MARY FLOOD HOUSTON CHRONICLE – Feb. 25, 2010
The U.S. Army is trying to stop retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who once led U.S. forces in Iraq, from continuing to be an expert for KBR in a lawsuit against it over civilian truck driver deaths and injuries.

Sanchez is being paid $650 an hour and has reviewed documents and written a report that support’s KBR’s contention it should not be held legally responsible for the deaths of six civilian truck drivers and the injuries of others in a 2004 ambush in Iraq.

The suing drivers and family members contend that KBR should have stopped the convoys when it was warned that attacks would increase on April 9, 2004, the first anniversary of the day allies in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq reached Baghdad.

KBR argues that the military approved sending the convoys out and several laws protect KBR from responsibility in a wartime situation. The Army contracts with KBR to provide transportation, food services and other logistical support. (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…)

KBR threatens Army with reduced support in Iraq

February 24, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Report finds Army broke contracting regulations in Iraq

Govexec.com – By Robert Brodsky - February 23, 2010

The Army broke federal procurement rules in 2004, when two commanding generals improperly directed a contracting officer to pay millions of dollars in fees to KBR Inc., according to a report released on Monday by the Defense Department inspector general.

Under the Federal Acquisition Regulation, the Army Sustainment Command should have withheld 15 percent of its payments to KBR under a cost-reimbursement task order through the massive Logistics Civil Augmentation Program III, because terms and price had not been finalized.

But when a contracting officer tried to withhold the funds, she was overruled by Army leaders who said KBR warned the move could hurt battlefield operations. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Contractors “ill-prepared” for consequences of hiring criminals???

February 23, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Franken amendment threatens to take funds from contractors

2010 Defense Appropriations Act provision witholds money from contractors using employee arbitration clauses

By Matthew Weigelt • Feb 22, 2010

Contractors, particularly large defense companies, are ill-prepared for a provision of the 2010 Defense Appropriations Act that stops funds from going to companies that require employees sign arbitration clauses.

Known as the Franken amendment for its sponsor Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), the provision gets the federal government more deeply involved in the employer-employee relationship at defense contractors and other companies.

The amendment, which went into effect Feb. 17, prohibits a contractor or subcontractor from receiving any government money in fiscal 2010 if they require employees or independent contractors to sign arbitration clauses. The amendment also bans defense companies from enforcing any existing agreements.

Arbitration is a process by which two parties, such as an employer and an employee, go to a third party to resolve a conflict. It’s a step away from a lawsuit. (Read the rest of the story here…)

KBR can’t seem to put Nigeria behind them

February 23, 2010 — Ms Sparky

US seeks extradition in bribe case

Bonny Island Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Plant - Nigeria

The US government is asking to extradite two men from the UK to face charges that they were involved in bribery to help US services outfit KBR win work for the Bonny Island LNG plant off Nigeria.

News wires 22 February 2010 20:29 GMT

A US prosecutor said Wojciech Chodan, 72, should be moved to Texas to stand trial on changes that he helped funnel more than $100 million in bribes to Nigerian officials on behalf of KBR.

If convicted, Chodan could face up to 55 years in jail, according to a report in the UK Guardian.

Chodan worked for Halliburton and at the time of the bribes, KBR was a Halliburton subsidiary.

It was subsequently spun off.

Halliburton and other companies involved in the scheme agreed to pay a $579 million fine last year in connection to the charges.

District Judge Caroline Tubbs is expected to give a verdict in the hearing on 20 April, the Guardian reported.

The US is also trying to extradite London lawyer Jeffrey Tesler on charges that he helped launder some of the money paid out in bribes. (click HERE for original article)

Nigerian Bribery Investigation Confronts Confusion

By Jesse Sunenblick | February 22, 2010

There is confusing information coming out of Nigeria about the status of a domestic investigation into the KBR-Halliburton element of the TSKJ consortium bribery scandal.

The consortium — equally owned by KBR (a former subsidiary of Halliburton), France’s Technip, Italy’s Snamprogetti, and Japan Gasoline Corp. — has been under investigation by the DOJ and SEC since 2004 for a variety of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act charges connected to a $100 million bribery scheme to secure liquefied natural gas contracts in Nigeria worth some $6 billion. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Is the US State Department a subsidiary of Dyncorp?

February 22, 2010 — Ms Sparky

One sure would think so……..

IG: Single Staffer Assigned To Oversee $2.5 Billion Dyncorp Iraq Contract
TPMMuckraker Justin Elliott | January 25, 2010, 9:33AM

It’s hardly news that U.S. government contracts in Iraq have been a mess of fraud, abuse, and lax oversight for years. But a new Inspector General report that reveals the State Department assigned just one oversight officer to a $2.5 billion police training contract still manages to shock.

The report (.pdf) released today by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction is the second study in the past few years that showed lax or nonexistent oversight on the large police training contract of Virginia-based Dyncorp.

The IG concluded that “over $2.5 billion in U.S. funds are vulnerable to waste and fraud” — an assertion the State Department disputes.

The BBC outlines the state of oversight on the contract: (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…)

More arrests in the minority defense contractor bribery scheme

February 18, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Maj. John L. Cockerham

Iraq War Contractor Guilty
Ex-Sergeant Pleads to Multiple Counts in Bribery Case Involving U.S. Army Officers

By JOEL MILLMAN

A former U.S. Army sergeant became the latest person to plead guilty in a sprawling bribes-for-contracts scheme in Iraq in 2005 and 2006 that has ended the careers of five military officers.

Terry Hall, 44 years old, of Snellville, Ga., pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala., to multiple counts of bribery, conspiracy, money-laundering and wire fraud. He agreed to forfeit $15.7 million seized as evidence from offshore accounts, and faces up to 20 years in prison. Mr. Hall’s lawyer couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

Mr. Hall’s plea is another milestone in a case that began more than three years ago with the suicide of Army Maj. Gloria Davis in her quarters at Baghdad’s Camp Victory. The case has brought guilty pleas from three other majors and one lieutenant colonel, who were accused of conspiring to rig defense contracts worth tens of millions of dollars in Iraq and Kuwait. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Feds raid defense contractor in Nashville

February 17, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Agents pay morning visit to Nashville arms manufacturer

By Ken Whitehouse
02-17-2010 10:39 AM

M2 Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun

Federal law enforcement agents, led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, descended on Nashville’s Sabre Defence Industries this morning and closed down the facility for at least the day.

Sabre manufactures firearms and firearm parts and accessories. It is contracted by the U.S. armed forces for parts and mounts for the M2 Browning .50-caliber machine gun and Minigun. In addition to its government contracts, it produces the XR15 rifle, non-standard M4 Carbines, and non-standard M16A4s.

Law enforcement officials were seen escorting employees one by one of the company out of their 35,000-square-foot facility on Allied Drive. Each employee was searched next to their personal vehicle, had their vehicle searched and, when cleared, were allowed to leave the premises. No individuals were witnessed being arrested. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Defense contractors cringe at the thought the Pentagon will track the assault of their employees

February 12, 2010 — Ms Sparky

By KIMBERLY HEFLING
Associated Press Writer
Feb 12, 4:41 PM EST

Jamie Leigh Jones

WASHINGTON (AP) — The sexual assault of employees of U.S. military contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan will be tracked by the Pentagon under a system it is setting up.

The tracking will likely begin this year, Defense official Gail McGinn said in a memo to the Pentagon’s Inspector General included in a report released Friday.

The IG evaluation was initiated by a request from congressional members concerned that not enough protections were offered to U.S. contracting employees assaulted in the war zones. One of the most high profile cases was that of a Texas woman, Jamie Leigh Jones. Jones has sued Halliburton Co. and its former subsidiary KBR, saying she was gang raped while working for KBR in Iraq in 2005.

The IG also recommended the Pentagon develop plans to provide immediate help following assaults on contractor employees, which McGinn also said the Pentagon was developing plans to do.

The IG noted it found anecdotal evidence that contractors who reported being assaulted received medical and other assistance from military personnel. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Iraq tells former Blackwater employees, “You have seven days!”

February 10, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Iraq orders former Blackwater security guards out

Published: 2/10/10, 4:46 PM EDT
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA

FILE- In this Feb. 7, 2007 file photo, a helicopter operated by Blackwater USA, a private security contractor, flies over central Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq has ordered about 250 former and current employees of Blackwater Worldwide to leave the country within seven days or face having their visas pulled. The order comes in the wake of a U.S. judge dismissing criminal charges against five Blackwater guards who were accused in the September 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic, File) (Marko Drobnjakovic - AP)

BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraq has ordered hundreds of private security guards linked to Blackwater Worldwide to leave the country within seven days or face possible arrest on visa violations, the interior minister said Wednesday.

The order comes in the wake of a U.S. judge’s dismissal of criminal charges against five Blackwater guards who were accused in the September 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad.

It applies to about 250 security contractors who worked for Blackwater in Iraq at the time of the incident, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told The Associated Press.

Some of the guards now work for other security firms in Iraq, while others work for a Blackwater subsidiary, al-Bolani said. He said all “concerned parties” were notified of the order three days ago and now have four days left before they must leave. He did not name the companies.

Blackwater security contractors were protecting U.S. diplomats when the guards opened fire in Nisoor Square, a busy Baghdad intersection, on Sept. 16, 2007. Seventeen people were killed, including women and children, in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq. (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…)

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