» KBR Investigations Ms Sparky

KBR asks federal judge to dismiss case brought by Oregon soldiers

Posted on: January 27th, 2012 at 2:42 pm — by Ms Sparky

Mike Francis – (The Oregonian) – January 27, 2012 – Lawyers for defense contractor KBR Inc. asked a federal judge in Portland Friday to dismiss the suit brought by a group of Oregon National Guard soldiers who said the KBR knowingly exposed them to a carcinogenic compound while they served in Iraq in 2003.

U.S. District Judge Paul Papak heard the arguments for two hours Friday morning, then said he would rule on KBR’s request in the coming weeks.

Friday’s arguments, while delivered in calm and measured tones, included some stinging accusations. KBR’s lawyer said the soldiers’ primary medical expert is “a junk scientist who cannot be trusted.” And the soldiers’ lawyer said KBR committed “fraud” in its conduct at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant and in its actions afterward.

While KBR is technically asking the judge to dismiss the entire case brought by 34 Oregon National Guard soldiers, KBR lawyer Geoffrey Harrison of the Houston law firm of Susman Godfrey acknowledged that he expects some subset of the group will survive the legal challenge and proceed toward trial.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in A Soldiers Story, CHEMICAL AND OTHER EXPOSURES, GOV. CONTRACTORS, KBR Contract, KBR Investigations, Lawsuits Against KBR, RIO-KBR, Sodium Dichromate @ Qarmat Ali. Tags: David Sugerman, Hexavalent Chromium, Jeffrey Eden, Judge Paul Papak, KBR, Oregon National Guard, Qarmat Ali, Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt, Sodium Dichromate. No Comments »

David Isenberg: Now Will You Do Something?

Posted on: November 19th, 2011 at 6:55 am — by Forseti

Najlaa CEO Bill Baisey aka Fathalla Belbaisi (photo from Facebook)

David Isenberg – (Huffington Post) – November 18, 2011 – Normally, I’m not one to go around saying “I told you so,” but (you knew a “but” was coming) I can’t help but point you to Document 172 (Sentencing Memo) of Case 5:09-cr-00154-VEH -PWG, United States of America v. Eddie Presley, and Eurica Pressley, defendants filed on November 13 in the U.S. District Court for Northern Alabama, Northeastern Division.

This document has to do with the now infamous Eddie Pressley fraud case. For those unfamiliar with this the bottom line is that as an Army officer assigned to the Kuwait contracting office, Pressley was responsible for soliciting and reviewing bids for contracts for goods and services for Department of Defense (“DoD”) necessary to support Operation Iraqi Freedom, arranging for contracts to be awarded to DoD contractors, and arranging for calls to be issued under blanket purchase agreements awarded to such contractors.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

KBR Dodges Lawsuit by Electrocuted Marine

Posted on: October 10th, 2011 at 10:25 am — by Forseti

KIM CALANTROPO - (Courthouse News) – RICHMOND, Va. – October 10, 2011 – A Marine who was electrocuted while trying to install a wiring box at the military base near Fallujah, Iraq, cannot pursue negligence claims against defense contractor Kellogg Brown & Root, the 4th Circuit ruled.

Peter Taylor had sought relief from the appellate court after a federal judge dismissed the claim in April 2010. Senior U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar had agreed with KBR that Taylor lacked subject-matter jurisdiction since the political question doctrine bars negligence claims. Doumar also found that the “combat activities” exemption of the Federal Tort Claims Act pre-empts the suit.

The 4th Circuit declined to revive Taylor’s claim, but it did vacate the trial court’s finding about the pre-emption issue since the lack of jurisdiction removes the judges need to consider this aspect of the case.

Taylor, a hospital corpsman for the Marines, had been stationed at a camp about 15 miles outside Fallujah at the time of the July 2007 accident. A generator malfunction had incapacitated the tank ramp that troops used to maintain Marine tanks, Humvees and other vehicles.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in A Soldiers Story, Electrocutions/Shocks, GOV. CONTRACTORS, KBR, KBR Contract, KBR Investigations, LAWSUITS, Lawsuits Against KBR, LOGCAP III - KBR. Tags: Camp Fallujah, Electrocutions/Shocks, Judge Robert G. Doumar, Judge Robert King, KBR, Petty Officer 2nd Class Peter Taylor, William Stickman. No Comments »

How private firms have cashed in on the climate of fear since 9/11

Posted on: September 5th, 2011 at 12:02 pm — by Forseti

The past ten years have seen the growth of a national security industrial complex that melds government and business

Paul Harris in New York – (Guardian UK) – September 5, 2011 – Charles Smith always enjoyed visiting US troops aboard. Though a civilian, he had worked for the army for decades, helping to run logistical operations from the Rock Island arsenal near Davenport, Iowa.
He helped keep troops supplied, and on trips to Iraq made a point of sitting down with soldiers in mess halls. “I would always ask them: what are we doing for you?” Smith told the Guardian.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Windfalls of war: KBR, the government’s concierge

Posted on: August 30th, 2011 at 5:47 am — by Ms Sparky

KBR’s umbrella contract to provide everything from showers to rebuilding airfields tops $37 billion. “It’s like a gigantic monopoly,” says one critic.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld talks with troops in Iraq. KBR has been paid $37 billion to build infrastructure like this dining hall. Jim Watson/AP

After a decade of war, KBR’s umbrella contract tops $37 billion

Sharon Weinberger – (The Center for Public Integrity – iWatch News) – August 30, 2011 – The rush to war in the months following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 created an urgency in the Pentagon, not just for military operations but also for contracting.

When U.S. forces moved into Afghanistan in 2001, there was little, if any, infrastructure to support and house U.S. troops. The military needed someone to do everything from housing troops to rebuilding airfields. The solution was a contract called the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, or LOGCAP, a type of umbrella contract the Army had been using to support is military bases overseas. In late 2001, the Army, after a competition, awarded LOGCAP III to KBR. The Houston-based firm [3], once a subsidiary of Halliburton, began providing everything from showers to dining halls.

Even beyond single-source contracts, the Pentagon has other types of contracts it can use to quickly award work without having to compete specific jobs. They include umbrella-type contracts, like LOGCAP, that allow the government to buy unspecified goods and services over long periods of time. “It’s the government’s way of saying ‘We don’t know what we want, and we don’t know how much it costs,’” said Laura Peterson, a senior policy analyst with Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group. “Instead they say, ‘we’ll put you on retainer and tell you later what we want and when we want it, and you just bill us.’ You become the government’s concierge, and it’s like a gigantic monopoly.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

KBR’s legacy to our MNF-I allies, cancer causing chemicals and fear

Posted on: July 21st, 2011 at 12:38 pm — by Forseti

Iraq veteran is cancer ‘timebomb’

Catherine Allen – (Chad) – UK – July 21, 2011 – AN Iraq War veteran from Skegby has spoken of his fear he may develop cancer as a result of the deadly chemicals he was exposed to while serving in Basra.
Cpl Jon Caunt (35) undertook five tours of Iraq between 2003 and 2007 when he and other members of the RAF Regiment were exposed to a distinctive orange powder at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant.

British troops, who were working alongside US forces and staff from private contractor Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), did not know the orange powder was in fact Sodium Dichromate, which contains a cancer-causing compound.

It is banned in many countries and had been used to stop pipes rusting.

The soldiers were responsible for restoring the plant so Iraqi people could resume oil production in a bid to rebuild their economy after the war – but they had no protection from the chemical and would often sleep on the ground surrounded by it.

Cpl Caunt said: “You have got to understand that we were breathing it in, we were firing in it and it was blown up by the wind – this stuff was everywhere.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in A Soldiers Story, CHEMICAL AND OTHER EXPOSURES, GOV. CONTRACTORS, KBR, KBR Investigations, Lawsuits Against KBR, Qarmat Ali Lawsuits, Reports & Investigations, RIO-KBR, Sodium Dichromate @ Qarmat Ali. Tags: Cpl Jon Caunt, KBR, Mike Doyle, Royal Air Force, Sgt Andy Tosh, Sodium Dichromate. No 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…)