LAWSUITS – Ms Sparky

Archive for the LAWSUITS Category

Taxpayers foot the bill for KBR attorneys at $750 per hour plus other outrageous perks

By Ms Sparky | Filed in CHEMICAL AND OTHER EXPOSURES, GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Lawsuits Against KBR, Politics, Qarmat Ali Lawsuits, RIO-KBR, Sodium Dichromate @ Qarmat Ali

Wyden: KBR is Wasting Taxpayer Money While Avoiding Responsibility for Exposure of Oregon Guard to Toxic Chemicals

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Washington, D.C. – In a letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) called on the DoD to investigate the excessive expenses racked up by the legal team of Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) – a defense contractor that operated in Iraq with the contractual ability to pass all of their legal costs to American taxpayers. A lawsuit against KBR brought by a group of Oregon National Guard members assigned to provide security for KBR personnel claims that KBR management knew that the soldiers were being exposed to toxic chemicals while working at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant. Read the remainder of this entry »

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Tags: David Sugerman, Jeff Raizner, KBR, Mike Doyle, Oregon National Guard, Qarmat Ali, RIO-KBR, Secretary Leon Panetta, Sen. Ron Wyden

Leaked Memo: Afghan ‘Burn Pit’ Could Wreck Troops’ Hearts, Lungs

By Ms Sparky | Filed in Burn Pit Lawsuits, Burn Pits, CHEMICAL AND OTHER EXPOSURES, GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Lawsuits Against KBR

A bulldozer dumps a load of trash into a burn pit just 300 yards from the runway at Bagram Airfield, January 2012. An Army memo from 2011 found the burn pit is associated with "long-term" health effects on soldiers at Bagram. Photo: U.S. Army

By Spencer Ackerman @ Wired.com

A bulldozer dumps a load of trash into a burn pit just 300 yards from the runway at Bagram Airfield, January 2012. An Army memo from 2011 found the burn pit is associated with “long-term” health effects on soldiers at Bagram.

For years, U.S. government agencies have told the public, veterans and Congress that they couldn’t draw any connections between the so-called “burn pits” disposing of trash at the military’s biggest bases and veterans’ respiratory or cardiopulmonary problems. But a 2011 Army memo obtained by Danger Room flat-out stated that the burn pit at one of Afghanistan’s largest bases poses “long-term adverse health conditions” to troops breathing the air there. Read the remainder of this entry »

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Tags: Baghram, Bagram Airfield, Burn Pits, Lawsuits Against KBR, Susan Burke

Former employee says defense contractor retaliating for whistle-blowing

By Forseti | Filed in GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Qui Tam

Brian Bowling – (Tribune-Review) – May 21, 2012 – A Butler County man claims in a federal lawsuit filed today that subsidiaries of London-based defense contractor BAE Systems PLC have prolonged a state lawsuit over a non-competition clause and his federal bankruptcy case to punish him for filing a whistleblower lawsuit against the contractor.

Paul Bartock of Center claims that O’Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt Armoring Co. and its successor, BAE Systems Survivability Systems, have kept him from working for a competitor long after the two-year term of his non-competition contract expired because they know he filed a False Claims Act lawsuit in 2007. BAE Systems bought O’Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt in 2007, the lawsuit says.

Bartock was formerly the head of the company’s program for providing enhanced-armored Humvees to the Army, the lawsuit says.

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Tags: BAE Systems, BAE Systems Survivability Systems, Brian Roehrkasse, False Claims Act, O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt Armoring Co., Paul Bartock

Arrested developments and other news

By Forseti | Filed in Civilian Contractors, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, LAWSUITS, U.S. Army

Report: TRC Folded In Inquiry
Haines City firm faced accusations of supplying Army with bad gyroscopes.
Kyle Kennedy – (The Ledger) – HAINES CITY – May 20, 2012 – When Technology Research Consultants landed in Polk County in 2003, the company shined with promise.

But about five years later, the celebrated defense contractor abruptly shut down. Until now, the reason behind its exit has been a mystery.

TRC, which made gyroscopes for the Army’s Black Hawk helicopters, secured millions of dollars’ worth of government contracts and eventually grew to more than 70 employees at the firm’s headquarters in Haines City. Local business and economic development leaders hoped TRC’s award-winning success might attract interest from other technology firms.

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Appeals court revives Iraq contractor torture cases

By Forseti | Filed in GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS

Former Abu Ghraib prisoners can sue contractors over alleged abuse -court
CACI International and L-3 not entitled to early appeal
Cases will resume in Virginia and Maryland courts

Terry Baynes – (Reuters) – 11 May 2012 – A U.S. appeals court on Friday revived two lawsuits accusing employees of two defense contractors of conspiring to torture and abuse Iraqis detained at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad and at other locations.

A 14-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, Virginia, refused to intervene and dismiss the suits against CACI International Inc and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc, sending the cases back to district courts for further proceedings.

After the military invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States hired contractors from U.S.-based CACI and L-3 to provide translators and help conduct investigations. In 2004, photographs emerged depicting the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison. A number of military personnel were disciplined, but no contractors were charged.

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Tags: Abu Ghraib, CACI International, L-3 Communications