» Burn Pit Lawsuits Ms Sparky

Toxic Trash: The Burn Pits of Iraq and Afghanistan

Posted on: August 24th, 2011 at 1:32 pm — by Forseti

Here is an excerpt of an excellent article that was published today (August 24, 2011)

Billy McKenna and Kevin Wilkins survived Iraq—and died at home. The Oxford American sent filmmaker Dave Anderson and journalist J. Malcolm Garcia to Florida to investigate this deadly threat to American soldiers.

“Smoke Signals,” by J. Malcolm Garcia

Published in the Fall 2011 Issue of The Oxford American.

Strange to think about it, the black smoke.

As it turns out, the eventual killer of Billy McKenna was lurking in the photographs he snapped in Iraq. Billy wrote captions beneath some of his photographs: typical day on patrol reads one. The photo is partially obscured by the blurred image of a soldier’s upraised hand. Brown desert unfurls away from a vehicle toward an empty horizon, and a wavering sky scorched white hovers above. Off to one side: Balad Air Base and the spreading umbrella of rising dank smoke from a burn pit.

Billy told his wife, Dina, in e-mails from Iraq that the stench was killing him. The air so dirty it rained mud. He didn’t call them burn pits. She can’t recall what he called them. He didn’t mean killing him literally. Just that the overwhelming odor was god-awful and tearing up his sinuses. He didn’t wear a mask. It would not have been practical. In heat that soared above a hundred degrees, what soldier would wear one?

Dina doesn’t know when she first heard the words “burn pit.” A Veterans Affairs doctor may have said it. The doctors were telling her a lot of things when Billy was on a ventilator. All she could think was, How can he have cancer? He’s indestructible. He’s been to hell and back. He can build houses, race cars, fish, camp. He was an Eagle Scout as a kid. He doesn’t smoke cigarettes.

But Billy had been exposed to something much more harmful than cigarettes. Since 2003, defense contractors have used burn pits at a majority of U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan as a method of destroying military waste. The pits incinerate discarded human body parts, plastics, hazardous medical material, lithium batteries, tires, hydraulic fluids, and vehicles. Jet fuel keeps pits burning twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in A Soldiers Story, Burn Pit Lawsuits, Burn Pits, CHEMICAL AND OTHER EXPOSURES, GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Lawsuits Against KBR, LOGCAP III - KBR, Reports & Investigations. Tags: Anthony Szema, Billy McKenna, Burn Pits, GAO, Halliburton, Joint Base Balad (JBB), KBR, Kevin Wilkins, Maj. T.G. Taylor. 1 Comment »

Troops in Mideast Have More Respiratory Ills, Data Show

Posted on: May 16th, 2011 at 11:39 am — by Ms Sparky

SHIRLEY S. WANG – (Wall Street Journel) – May 16, 2011 – Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have a higher rate of debilitating respiratory illness than those deployed elsewhere, according to a new study that bolsters concerns among some medical professionals and members of Congress about the potential harm to troops from toxic chemicals and dust in the Middle East.

Soldiers who served in Iraq or Afghanistan complain of lingering coughs, shortness of breath, dizziness and other symptoms. Now, scientists say troops who served in the Middle East have higher rates of respiratory problems compared to those who served elsewhere. WSJ’s Shirley Wang reports.

The findings, which will be presented Wednesday at the International Conference of the American Thoracic Society in Denver, place renewed urgency on getting at the root of why some young, previously healthy soldiers have been returning from the Middle East complaining of symptoms including shortness of breath and dizziness. In many cases, the soldiers can no longer pass a required physical to continue with active duty.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

The naked truth about transparency and other news…

Posted on: March 6th, 2011 at 8:45 am — by Forseti

If transparency—including public access to past performance information—were added to the process, maybe the government would be deterred from awarding taxpayer dollars to risky contractors and the contractors would improve their performance. But then again, maybe these contractors are too big too fail. – Scott Amey, General Counsel Project On Government Oversight (POGO)

The Dog Ate My Performance Report

In brig, WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning ordered to sleep without clothing
Ellen Nakashima – (Washington Post) – March 6, 2011 – Military jailers are forcing Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old soldier accused of passing classified documents to WikiLeaks.org, to strip naked in his cell at night and sleep without clothing, a requirement his attorney says was imposed after Manning made a “sarcastic quip” about his confinement.

For most of the past eight months, Manning has been required to sleep wearing only boxer shorts, because of his status as a detainee under “prevention of injury watch,” said 1st Lt. Brian Villiard, a spokesman for the military detention facility, or “brig,” in Quantico. Beginning Wednesday night, the facility commander ordered that Manning turn over his boxers, too.

“The intention is not to cause any sort of humiliation or embarrassment,” Villiard said. “The intention is to ensure the safety and security of the detainee and make sure he is able to stand trial.”

Villiard said he could not explain how Manning might harm himself if he were allowed to keep his underwear, citing rules to protect detainees’ privacy. All he could say was that “circumstances warranted” the measure, which was ordered by the brig commander, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Denise Barnes. The requirement will remain in effect until a review next week, he said.

But Manning’s attorney, David E. Coombs, said he thought the order was “punitive” under the “guise of being concerned” about Manning’s welfare. (Click HERE for article)

Lawmakers criticize military funeral protesters
Ben Terris – (National Journal) – March 4, 2011 – Members of the Westboro Baptist Church, who won a Supreme Court ruling this week supporting their right to protest military funerals, are misusing their right to free speech, say Senate Armed Services Committee members Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., and Sen. Mark Begich, Alaska.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Thou shalt not lie! Someone needs to tell the Pentagon!

Posted on: November 2nd, 2010 at 5:20 am — by Ms Sparky

Anatomy of a Pentagon Lie

Kelley B. Vlahos – November 1, 2010 – Antiwar.com

It shouldn’t startle anyone to find that the Pentagon has blatantly ignored a congressional mandate to start reducing its use of burn pits at U.S. bases overseas.

It was only a year ago that Pentagon officials openly doubted that the black hellfire released from tons of burning hazardous waste in the open air could possibly have any long-term health effects on anyone unlucky enough to be breathing it in everyday.

“When we look at respiratory effects on a population-wide basis,” said Dr. Craig Postlewaite, director of DoD’s force readiness and health assurance, in an interview last September, “we’re not seeing a cause for concern.” The DoD’s official view has so far not changed. So, even as more and more service members come home sick – some of them irreparably, terminally – it would seem the Department of Defense has gone into classic default mode: stall until it becomes impossible to stall any longer.

That may buy the DoD ten years at least, and by then it’ll be the Veterans Administration’s problem.

The DoD Shuffle.

“They hold with the lie until they are caught so red handed they just can’t lie about it any longer,” says Deb Crawford, who spent time as a civilian electrician in the Green Zone from 2004 to 2006. She now publishes Ms. Sparky.com, a popular watchdog site, and recently spoke with Antiwar.com. “If anyone in the Pentagon were to claim they didn’t think the burn pits were an inherent health hazard to civilians and troops, I would have to call them a bold face liar.” (Read the rest of the story here…)

David Isenberg: This Waste Really Hurts

Posted on: October 16th, 2010 at 6:07 am — by Forseti

Photo from VA Watchdog dot Org

October 15, 2010 – As this is something I have written on previously it seems appropriate to note that today the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report on open-air burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq.

U.S. forces generate a lot of waste. According to the GAO U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq generate about 10 pounds of waste per servicemember each day. This waste may consist of plastic, styrofoam, and food from dining facilities; discarded electronics; shipping materials such as wooden pallets and plastic wrap; appliances; and other items such as mattresses, clothing, tires, metal containers, and furniture.

Assuming 50,000 troops in Iraq that is half a million pounds of waste a day. In Afghanistan it is nearly a million pounds a day. That doesn’t count waste produced by contractors or other DOD components. It also doesn’t include hazardous or medical waste. No matter how you look at it that is one heck of a log of garbage to burn.

Lawsuits have been filed in federal court in at least 43 states in which current and former service members have alleged, among other things, that a contractor’s negligent management of burn pit operations, contrary to applicable contract provisions, exposed them to air pollutants that subsequently caused serious health problems.

The contractor, KBR, has moved to dismiss the suits, arguing, among other things, that it cannot be held liable for any injuries that may have occurred to service personnel because its burn pit activities occurred at the direction of the military.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Burn Pit Lawsuits, Burn Pits, CHEMICAL AND OTHER EXPOSURES, George Lundy vs KBR - class action, Huffington Post, Lawsuits Against KBR, LOGCAP III - KBR, LOGCAP-Dyncorp, LOGCAP-Fluor, Reports & Investigations, Senate & House Committee Hearings. Tags: Burn Pits, David Isenberg*, GAO, Kevin Wilkins, Lawsuits Against KBR, Susan Burke. 6 Comments »

Iraq Burn Pit claims will proceed – Another stunning blow to KBR

Posted on: September 10th, 2010 at 7:00 am — by Ms Sparky

This is very very good news for those hundreds maybe thousands of victims of KBR burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the 3rd crushing blow to KBR legal team in a month. First was the courts denial of KBR’s Motion to Dismiss in the Electrocution Death of SSG Ryan Maseth. Now it will proceed to trial! The second was the courts denial of KBR’s Motion to Dismiss in the Qarmat Ali chemical exposure case of the Oregon National Guard Troops! Now it will proceed to trial. I hope there will be more and more denials of KBR’s Motions to Dismiss. ~ Ms Sparky

A Federal Court Judge has ordered that claims against military contractors, KBR (Kellogg Brown and Root) and Halliburton, may proceed. Sick soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan filed claims against the corporations because of “alleged failures of the military contractors to treat water and dispose of waste in a manner required” by their contract with the US Military.

Judge Roger W. Titus, in his 41 page opinion, dismissed the jurisdictions of the defendants and is allowing limited discovery to go forward. He also invited the participation of the US Government as an “amicus curiae, “friend of the Court,” in formulating the discovery plan.

A lawsuit is currently pending against Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) and Halliburton on behalf of soldiers who were exposed to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. The corporations were awarded US logistical contracts to support military in the war theaters.

In its ruling the Court stated, “In tension with the exercise of caution supported by these legal defenses is the legitimate concern that the judiciary may prematurely close courtroom doors to soldiers and civilians injured from wartime logistical activities performed by hired hands allegedly acting contrary to military-defined strictures. Courts must be prepared to adjudicate cases that ultimately expose defense contractors to appropriate liability where it is demonstrated that they acted outside the parameters established by the military and, as a result, failed to exercise proper care in minimizing risk to service members and civilians.”

Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have report illnesses, including: cancers, respiratory disease, skin disorders and cancer following there tours of duty. Six deaths have been reported from early onset of leukemia and many more under treatment for malignancies. (click HERE for original article)

Here are some other great articles on this victory!

Strike Two on “Just Following Orders” Defense – David Isenberg

A second setback for KBR: Motion to Dismiss Burn Pit cases rejected – Doyle Raizner

Alarms sound over trash fires in war zones of Afghanistan, Iraq

Posted on: August 6th, 2010 at 6:48 am — by Ms Sparky

Michele Pearce of McLean, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, says she joined the suit to find out if her cancers are related to open-air burning.

By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 6, 2010

Hundreds of military service members and contractor employees have fallen ill with cancer or severe breathing problems after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they say they were poisoned by thick, black smoke produced by the burning of tons of trash generated on U.S. bases.

In a lawsuit in federal court in Maryland, 241 people from 42 states are suing Houston-based contractor Kellogg Brown & Root, which has operated more than two dozen so-called burn pits in the two countries. The burn pits were used to dispose of plastic water bottles, Styrofoam food containers, mangled bits of metal, paint, solvent, medical waste, even dead animals. The garbage was tossed in, doused with fuel and set on fire.

The military personnel and civilian workers say they inhaled a toxic haze from the pits that caused severe illnesses. Six with leukemia have died, and five are being treated for the disease, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. At night, more than a dozen rely on machines to help them breathe or to monitor their breathing; others use inhalers. (Read the rest of the story here…)