» LAWSUITS

T Christian Miller on Bill Carlisle and Injured War Contractors

March 12, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Bill Carlisle

T Miller brings to light yet another Injured War Zone Contractor who is about to become homeless due to the unwarranted denial of Defense Base Act insurance benefits by AIG. Bill Carlisle has worked hard his whole life and was working hard when he was injured. Thanks to AIG and the fact no one in Congress or the DoL seems to give a damn, Bill’s home in foreclosure with a sale date within the month.

So what if he eventually gets the payments he is already supposed to be getting? His credit is ruined and he won’t be able to buy another home. He’s just another KBR AIG DBA casualty. AIG and CNA are ruining one life right after another.

Why is the Taxpayer paying for these benefits?

In recent years, the Pentagon has come to increasingly rely on private military contractors to do the work that members of the military used to do. But as the number of civilian contractors has grown, so too has the number of deaths and injuries of those contractors and with it, the cost of paying health care benefits for their injury claims.

T. Christian Miller [1] recently won the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting [2] for his coverage of the numerous obstacles contractors face [3] when they’ve been injured and try to collect benefits. We spoke to him about who is responsible for taking care of injured contractors, the ordeal they have to go through to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, the role AIG plays in this, contractor suicide rates and how Congress is addressing the problem.

We also hear from one of the people facing the difficulties Miller has documented. Bill Carlisle Jr. was a contractor with defense firm KBR. He sustained both physical and psychological injuries, and is now fighting insurer AIG for the benefits he says they owe him.

Listen to this 17 minute Podcast below

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Articles discussed in this podcast:

Injured War Zone Contractors Fight to Get Care From AIG and Other Insurers

The Other Victims of Battlefield Stress; Defense Contractors’ Mental Health Neglected

Injured Abroad, Neglected at Home: Labor Dept. Slow to Help War Zone Contractors

Labor Dept., Congress Plan Improvements to System to Care for Injured War Contractors

Pentagon Study Proposes Overhaul of Defense Base Act to Cover Care for injured Contractors

Originally posted at Defense Base Act Compensation Blog, and Propublica

The False Claims Act rewards citizens for reporting corporate fraud

March 9, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Whistle-blowers are people who know and can prove that the city, state or federal government has paid claims or invoices to wrongdoers based upon false or misleading information. The Federal False Claims Act and similar state and municipal laws allow the government to collect up to three times the amount it was defrauded, in addition to civil penalties of $5,500 to $11,000 per false claim. A whistle-blower in a qui tam case, known as a “relator,” is entitled to recover 15-25% of any settlement or recovery obtained by the government in connection with the filing of his or her qui tam complaint.

In addition to the Federal False Claims Act, 24 states have their own false claims acts. Each one has established laws that allow recovery for “whistle-blowers” who can prove fraud against a government body and laws that protect them from retaliation by their employer. These states include: California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. The California and Illinois false claims acts also permit relators to bring claims for fraud against private insurers. The District of Columbia, New York City and Chicago also have their own false claims acts.

Qui tam cases come in many varieties. Common types of qui tam fraud include: Medicare and Medicaid Fraud, Nursing Home and Healthcare Fraud, Pharmaceutical Fraud, Construction and Contractor Fraud, Wartime and Defense Contractor Fraud, Aerospace Fraud, Education and Grant Fraud, Procurement Fraud, U.S. Postal Service Fraud, and I.R.S. Fraud. (Read the rest of the story here…)

David Isenberg – KBR: Failing Upwards

March 5, 2010 — Ms Sparky

David Isenberg – Huffington Post
Author, Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq (Praeger Security International)
Posted: March 5, 2010

I wonder who comes up with this KBR stuff?

Up is down, night is day, and now, in the best tradition of George Orwell’s 1984 newspeak KBR — the company that was the subject of a recent Department of Defense Inspect General report that found that 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., when funds should have been withheld, per the language in the contract with KBR – has been awarded its first task order under the newest version of LOGCAP.

For those who don’t know, LOGCAP is the mother of all logistics support contracts. Without it the U.S. Army simply can’t function.

The award also comes just a week after the Army announced that KBR would not be awarded $25 million in bonuses under the LOGCAP III Iraq support contract because KBR “failed to meet a level deserving of an award fee payment for work it did during the first four months of 2008.” Although the Army did not specifically cite it when announcing the withholding of the payment KBR’s “failed” work occurred during the time a Green Beret was electrocuted in a barracks shower in Iraq KBR was responsible for maintaining. (Read the rest of the story here…)

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…)

Army decision to deny millions in bonuses to KBR is “Right call, but only fist step”

February 26, 2010 — Ms Sparky

American Chronicle – Congressional Desk
February 26, 2010

Former Task Force SAFE Electrical Subject Matter Expert James Childs testifies before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee about the shoddy electrical work performed by KBR. Cheryl Harris, SSG Ryan Maseth's mother, sheds a tear as she listens to why her son was electrocuted and died in his shower in Baghdad on January 2, 2008.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), who chaired Senate hearings on electrocutions of soldiers in Iraq resulting from shoddy contracting work by KBR, said Thursday the Army´s decision to deny million of dollars in bonuses to the firm for its 2008 work in Iraq “is the right call, but it is only a first step.”

Dorgan chaired two Senate Democratic Policy Committee (DPC) hearings in 2008 and 2009 on KBR´s shoddy electrical work in Iraq. The hearings revealed widespread problems with KBR´s electrical work there including countless electrical shocks including one that killed Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, and perhaps others, and injured dozens more on their own bases as they showered and engaged in other routine activities.

Following the hearings, Dorgan and Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) wrote the Army asking that it review KBR´s work and the electrocution death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth. They also asked the Army to re-evaluate the millions of dollars in bonuses it has routinely awarded KBR for supposedly excellent work, even when the Army´s own evidence made clear it was highly questionable.

The Army´s investigation of Maseth´s January 2008 death found that KBR´s work exposed soldiers to “unacceptable risk.” A theatre-wide safety review that resulted from the Dorgan-Casey request — Task Force SAFE — also found widespread problems with KBR´s electrical work that exposed soldiers to life threatening risks. (Read the rest of the story here…)

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…)

KBR loses $25M in award fee bonuses for poor performance in Iraq (updated)

February 24, 2010 — Ms Sparky

They didn’t just lose $25M….they got ZERO! This is a classic example of how one person can make a difference. I do believe KBR underestimated Cheryl Harris’ tenacity. I applaud you Cheryl!

Contractor linked to Iraq death loses $25M in fees

By KIMBERLY HEFLING
Associated Press Writer
Feb 24, 10:42 PM EST

Cheryl Harris with her son Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth. Ryan, 24, was electrocuted in his shower in Iraq on Jan. 2, 2008. Cheryl has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against KBR. That suit is currently sitting in the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals awaiting a decision.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Military contractor KBR has lost about $25 million in bonuses from the government because of “failed” worked done in Iraq during the time a Green Beret was electrocuted in a barracks shower it was responsible for maintaining.

The U.S. Army Sustainment Command said in a statement released to The Associated Press Wednesday night that the Houston-based company failed to meet a level deserving of an award fee payment for work it did during the first four months of 2008. Award fees are written into contracts as an incentive for the contractors to do quality work.

The Army statement did not specifically mention the January 2008 death of 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth of Pittsburgh in the statement but said a task force that has extensively reviewed electrical work in Iraq was consulted in making the decision as was the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, which investigated Maseth’s death, but did not press charges against KBR.

Dan Carlson, a spokesman for the Army Sustainment Command, said in an e-mail that “multiple factors” led to the decision. (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…)

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…)

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

The Flight and Crash of “Blackwater 61″ – 60 Minutes

February 22, 2010 — Ms Sparky

A tragic story about how an inexperienced Blackwater flight crew who crashed their plane in Afghanistan killing 6 including Lt. Col. Michael McMahon who at the time was the highest ranking soldier to die in the war.

(If you are having problems viewing this video on MsSparky.com click HERE to view it and the show transcript at the CBS site.)

Watch CBS News Videos Online

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…)

DynCorp Wins $10M Punitive Damages Appeal

February 17, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Courthouse News
February 16, 2010

(CN) – The 4th Circuit vacated a $10 million punitive damages award against defense contractor DynCorp International in a lawsuit accusing it of discriminating against the minority-owned subcontractor Worldwide Network Services.

Worldwide sued DynCorp in October 2006, alleging breach of contract and discrimination over the failure to renew its subcontract for communications and information technology services in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2006, after relations between the companies had deteriorated, DynCorp refused to renew Worldwide’s subcontract, stopped payment for work already completed, and replaced Worldwide with a non-minority-owned subcontractor.

DynCorp’s IT manager, Leon DeBeer, allegedly told others that “the proper role of the black man was to go out and kill a lion, proving his manhood, at which point in time he should be put to work to feed his family … and mated with a woman so that he would have more children, who could then be put to work feeding their family.”

DeBeer, a white South African, also called Worldwide executive Walter Gray a “nigger,” a “bush native” and a “kaffir,” according to the lawsuit. (Read the rest of the story here…)

David Isenberg: Blackwater Uses the F(raud) Word

February 14, 2010 — Ms Sparky

David Isenberg – Huffington Post
Author, Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq (Praeger Security International)

Posted: February 13, 2010 10:09 PM

Xe Services (formerly known as Blackwater) is once again in the news, thanks to charges made by two of its former employees.

The ex-employees, a husband and wife team, Brad and Melan Davis, worked in various Blackwater locations, both overseas and in the United States.

They are suing Blackwater under the False Claims Act, a U.S. federal law which allows people who are not affiliated with the government to file actions against federal contractors claiming fraud against the government. Persons filing under the Act stand to receive a portion (usually about 15-25 percent) of any recovered damages. Claims under the law have been filed by persons with insider knowledge of false claims which have typically involved health care, military, or other government spending programs. The government has recovered nearly $22 billion dollars under the False Claims Act between 1987 and 2008.

The Davis’s suit (posted by Ms. Sparky here) makes many charges but, predictably, the press thus far has largely focused on the most sensationalistic, namely that Blackwater officials kept a Filipino prostitute on the company payroll for a State Department contract in Afghanistan, and billed the government for her time working for Blackwater male employees in Kabul. The alleged prostitute’s salary was categorized as part of the company’s “Morale Welfare Recreation” expenses.

This rather superficial focus is similar to what the media did when the Project on Government Oversight released its report last September on drunken party antics by ArmorGroup private security contractors in Kabul, Afghanistan. Lost in all the coverage of contractors eating chips out of someone’s ass was the fact that ArmorGroup’s performance had “negatively impacted the security posture of the Local Guard Program for the U.S. Mission to Kabul.” (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…)

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…)

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