» Iraq Human Trafficking Ms Sparky

More DoD Investigations of Allegations of U.S. Contractor-Fueled Human Trafficking

Posted on: January 26th, 2012 at 7:44 pm — by Ms Sparky

I find it hard to believe, after all the reports called into the DoDIG, the CID, the DCIS, all they have managed to investigate are three. Iraq was overflowing with human trafficking issues by contractor employees. POGO published and in depth report regarding human trafficking. The news media has reported on human trafficking violations. Individuals have reported instances of human trafficking. MsSparky.com has published instances of human trafficking. When will these DOD contractors be debarred. When will these DOD contractors be indicted for human trafficking? When will someone go to prison? I don’t know what more the DOJ needs for indictments, but someone needs to grow a set and indict someone! ~Ms Sparky

NICK SCHWELLENBACH – (POGO) – January 26, 2012 – It appears that Fiscal Year 2011 saw more Defense Department criminal investigations of alleged human trafficking by its contractor supply chain than in any one of the last five years, according to a Pentagon inspector general report publicly released today (it is dated January 17).
All three investigations involved or allegedly involved U.S. government contractors or subcontractors in Southwest Asia: Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

Here’s how the inspector general describes the three cases in its report: (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Iraq Human Trafficking, Reports & Investigations, Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Violations. Tags: DoD Contractors, DoD*, DoDIG*, Human Trafficking, Nick Schwellenbach, POGO, Trafficking In Persons. 6 Comments »

Trafficking in persons – DoD has an App for that but not much else

Posted on: November 4th, 2011 at 6:40 am — by Ms Sparky

“Human trafficking by federal overseas contractors is widespread and never punished,” said Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (Va.), the top Democrat on the panel. “Not a single case of human trafficking, sexual assault, wage theft or related crimes has been prosecuted by the Department of Justice, and only a single case has even been referred for prosecution by the Department of Defense. Neither the Army and Air Force Exchange Service nor any other component of DoD or the State Department has suspended or debarred a single federal contractor for human trafficking, even though such abuses are routine.”
~Joe Davidson, Washington Post, November 2, 2011

Agencies blasted for ignoring contractor role in human trafficking

Charles S. Clark – (GovExec) – November 3, 2011 – The State and Defense departments are doing too little to help prosecute criminals working for U.S. subcontractors who trick foreign nationals into indentured servitude and prostitution in and around Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, a House panel was told on Wednesday.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of desperate workers from nations such as Bangladesh, Nepal and the Fiji Islands in recent years have fallen victim to deceitful traffickers who lure them to war zones with the promise of steady work, but then force them to pay commissions and borrow from loan sharks before trapping them in degrading jobs in unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Yet not a single prosecution or contractor termination has been documented, witnesses said, a state of affairs that agency representatives could do little to explain. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Peacekeepers’ Sex Scandals Linger, On Screen and Off

Posted on: September 8th, 2011 at 6:56 am — by Ms Sparky

While making more than $36 billion to support bases in Iraq, KBR allegedly earned another $700 million in kickbacks from the subcontractors it hired for projects. It also spent $5 million on 144 mechanics who worked as little as 43 minutes a month, on average. And to top it all off, KBR may have been involved in human trafficking of men and women from developing countries who were forced to live in “prisonlike” conditions in Iraq. ~Neil Brinkerhoff – AllGov

NEIL MacFarquhar – (New York Times) – UNITED NATIONS — September 7, 2011 – On screen, two senior United Nations officials in Bosnia are arguing about firing Kathy Bolkovac, an American police officer battling to stop peacekeepers from both trafficking in young women and frequenting the brothels where they became indentured prostitutes.
“It is a point of honor for me that the U.N. is not remembered for raping the very people we must protect,” says Madeleine Rees, a spirited human rights advocate played by Vanessa Redgrave.

“Those girls are whores of war,” growls the male bureaucrat heading the United Nations mission. “It happens; I will not dictate for morality.” (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Iraq Human Trafficking, Rape, Hazing, Discrimination & Harassment, Reports & Investigations, Security Contractors, Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Violations. Tags: DynCorp*, Human Trafficking, Kathy Bolkovac, KBR, Prostitution, The Whistleblower (The Movie), Trafficking In Persons. 1 Comment »

A Tip for Dealing with TIPS

Posted on: August 19th, 2011 at 10:45 am — by Ms Sparky

And yet, another excellent article by David Isenberg covering human trafficking violations and USG contractors. A topic which gets a lot of lip service from the DoD, DoS and let’s not forget the DoJ, but very little action when it comes to enforcing the “Zero Tolerance Policy” of FAR, DFAR or other applicable U.S. laws. I’ve done several posts on contractors who condone human trafficking, or just look the other way when it’s brought to their attention. Meanwhile their managers are not only committing TIPs violations by owning brothels, but exasperate the situation by enticing, encouraging, or threatening, their co-workers and direct reports to patronize their establishments and participate in this illegal activity. For shame…..for shame! ~ Ms Sparky

By David Isenberg – (PMSC Observer) – July 12, 2011 – Okay, I admit I have already written about this two times previously, but, once more into the breech, dear friends, once more. So again let’s discuss exploiting labor, as in trafficking in persons. And not just because of my past report on Najlaa International Catering Services on the subject.

This issue affects more than logistics contractors. For example, the Justice Department announced on July 7, that ArmorGroup North America Inc. (AGNA) and its affiliates have paid the United States $7.5 million to resolve allegations that AGNA submitted false claims for payment on a State Department contract to provide armed guard services at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, the Justice Department announced today. The settlement resolves U.S. claims that in 2007 and 2008, AGNA guards violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) by visiting brothels in Kabul, and that AGNA’s management knew about the guards’ activities. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Iraq Human Trafficking, LOGCAP III - KBR, Reports & Investigations, Security Contractors, Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Violations. Tags: ArmorGroup, David Isenberg*, DFAR, DoJ*, DynCorp*, FAR, Human Trafficking, International Stability Operations Association, Najlaa, Sex Tourism, Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). No Comments »

Iraq to fly home despairing Sri Lankan workers

Posted on: July 20th, 2011 at 9:23 am — by Forseti

Lara Jakes – Associated Press – July 13, 2011 – BAGHDAD—A group of Sri Lankan laborers who tried to kill themselves after months of begging for food and shelter when their employer went out of business will each be given $3,000 and flown home for free, the Iraqi government said Wednesday.

Despairing because they hadn’t been paid, 10 of the Sri Lankans climbed a building in Iraq’s southern Maysan province and threatened to hang themselves in May before local officials intervened and promised to help. The Sri Lankans are among about 6,000 foreign workers in Iraq, most of whom live in meager conditions, get little pay and cannot afford to buy plane tickets to leave.

But with about 900,000 unemployed Iraqis, the government has been looking at ways to send foreign workers home to free up jobs for citizens.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Iraq Human Trafficking. Tags: Human Trafficking, Sri Lanka, Talat Hussam-Din Co.. 3 Comments »

Subcontracting Substandard Services: Military Contracts in Iraq Still Controversial

Posted on: June 27th, 2011 at 7:09 am — by Forseti

David Isenberg – (CorpWatch) June 27, 2011
Najlaa International Catering Services won a $3 million five-year contract in February 2010 to prepare food for the U.S. Agency for International Development compound in Iraq. The deal was approved despite the fact that Bill Baisey, CEO of the Kuwaiti company, faces numerous complaints and court actions for non-payment of bills and alleged fraud in Kuwait and Iraq.

U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been plagued by private military contractors that have performed poorly or failed miserably in fulfilling their contracts. Some overstated their capabilities or were badly managed and under-skilled, while others committed outright fraud.

Past investigations concentrated on major contractors such as Halliburton and Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), but recently the smaller companies – such as Najlaa – to which these giants subcontract have drawn fire.

“The government has limited visibility into subcontractor affairs and limited ability to influence their actions,” said former U.S. Congressman Christopher Shays at a July 2010 hearing of the Commission on Wartime Contracting. “This fact presents a challenge to transparency and accountability for the use of taxpayers’ dollars. Poorly conceived, poorly structured, poorly conducted, and poorly monitored subcontracting can lead to poor choices in security measures and damage to U.S. foreign policy objectives, among other problems.”

The United States, however, has become so dependent on contractors who do the laundry, feed the troops, and build and run facilities that it would be difficult if not impossible for the military to continue without them.

Najlaa’s Contracts

Najlaa is part of the extensive web of subcontractors supplying the goods and services that sustain U.S. war efforts, and the Kuwait-based company’s failures and problems fit a common pattern. One of several firms that make up Baisey-owned Eastern Solutions Group, Najlaa has several subcontracts with KBR, which has provided more than $35 billion in base maintenance services to the U.S. military in war zones including Iraq and Afghanistan under the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP).

(Read the rest of the story here…)

KBR’s Mike Land reprimanded for taking a stand against human trafficking

Posted on: June 7th, 2011 at 5:48 pm — by Ms Sparky

Mike Land and his crew

The Dancing Cowboy Whistleblower
Posted by Sarah Stillman
The New Yorker

In the June 6th issue of the magazine, my “Invisible Army” piece told the story of foreign workers on U.S. bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. The allegations on which I reported—tales of deceptive recruitment, unpaid wages, sexual assault, and conditions resembling indentured servitude faced by some foreign subcontract workers of the Pentagon—were cited in federal hearings of the Commission on Wartime Contracting.

One of the commission’s members, Dov Zakheim, called the situation described in the article “a major scandal for the United States,” and asked the State Department’s Ambassador Patrick F. Kennedy what was being done about these sorts of “shocking” abuses. What he was trying to get a handle on, from a policy standpoint, is what several readers have now asked me from a human one: Are there any signs of meaningful reform, or any efforts to which we can lend our support?

At the highest levels of governance, I’m not so sure. But in the worker camps on U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, I’ve met dozens of whistleblowers whose stories merit telling. Some are U.S. soldiers; others are foreign and American contractors. They have spoken out on behalf of the wars’ vast support forces from places like Fiji, Sierra Leone, and Nepal, occasionally at great risk to themselves and their jobs.

One man in particular stands out: a former employee at KBR, a global engineering and construction company, named Mike Land. Land calls himself a Texas cowboy. For nearly four years, he worked as a labor foreman in Baghdad. In my article, I alluded to his efforts to confront Prime Projects International, a Dubai-based subcontractor of KBR, about the dismal living conditions of the Indian and Filipino men he supervised. (Sadly, he didn’t make much headway; after Land left Iraq, I uncovered a massive food riot that took place on the same base complex last summer, involving more than twelve hundred angry South Asian men rioting for food.) (Read the rest of the story here…)