» Stanley Baker Hill (SBH) Ms Sparky

Defense contractors and their sex crimes go unreported and unpunished

April 21, 2010 — Ms Sparky

David Isenberg: PMC and Sex Crimes

David Isenberg – Huffington Post
Author, Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq (Praeger Security International)
Posted: April 21, 2010 12:07 PM

On April 16 the Department of Defense Inspector General released a report that nobody has been talking about. Allow me to be the first. Perhaps we should subtitle it the crime that dare not speak its name, as it deals with a topic that most private military contractors (PMC) generally don’t talk about publicly.

The title of the report is “Efforts to Prevent Sexual Assault/Harassment Involving DOD Contractors During Contingency Operations.” .

My first thought is how is it that some contractors can’t seem to keep it in their pants? This is an issue that seems to keep happening over the years; from the days when DynCorp contractors were involved in a sex trafficking scandal in Bosnia when employees and supervisors engaged in sex with 12 to 15 year old children, and sold them to each other as slaves to the gang-rape of Jamie Leigh Jones a former KBR employee who claimed that seven KBR employees drugged and gang-raped her on July 28, 2005 at Camp Hope, Baghdad, Iraq.

For those who like to dismiss such things as isolated occurrences just head on over to the “Rape, Hazing, Discrimination & Harassment” section of Ms. Sparky’s blog and you will be promptly disabused of such a notion. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Defense contractors must now air dirty deeds in public

January 17, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Defense contractors such as KBR can no longer hide behind the closed doors of secret binding arbitration for serious issues such as discrimination, harassment, rape and assault. No longer with KBR and others be able to violate Title VII Laws and then just sweep them under the rug behind closed doors. Those abusive criminal managers who have been in place for years are finally going to cost them some money and Heather Browne, KBR’s Communications Director is going to be working overtime. Well done, Jamie Leigh Jones and thank you Al Franken for taking these issue seriously. Hopefully this is just the first in a series of laws to protect defense contractor employees.

For those who respond to every dispute or disagreement here on MsSparky.com with “You signed a contract”. You can’t sign away law! (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Agility/PWC/GCC, Combat Support Ass. (CSA), Franken Amendment, GOV. CONTRACTORS, LOGCAP III - KBR, LOGCAP-Dyncorp, LOGCAP-Fluor, Rape, Hazing, Discrimination & Harassment, Security Contractors, Stanley Baker Hill (SBH), TENG & Assoc. Tags: DynCorp, Employee Issues-KBR, Fluor, Franken Amendment, Jamie Leigh Jones. 9 Comments »

Ms Sparky – wrapping up 2009

January 3, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Before I give you all the “Mosts for 2009″ I want to share some 2009 “MsSparky.com” stats with you . I realize these stats would be considered a failure for blogs such as the Huffington Post, but MsSparky.com has come a long way since I started keeping stats in June 2008 and I am very proud of that. It is “MsSparky.com” readers, commentors and guest writers (THANK YOU Forseti) who have contributed to these stats which ultimately results in getting the word out about KBR and contractor fraud in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait!

My goal for 2010 is to have numbers at least 5 times greater than 2009!

Month/Year	Unique Visitors	Total # of Visits	Total # of Pages Viewed	Hits
June 2008	171	520	3,538	7,133
January 2009	4,728	9,155	29,391	144,978
December 2009	23,014	48,392	558,638	1,691,847
Total for 2009	112,963	245,021	1,295,953	4,722,183

Technorati.com is a blog tracking and rating site. I tried to find the official number of blogs they tracked in 2009 and didn’t find it. But in 2008 it was over 113 million just English speaking blogs. I am expecting 2009 to be in the 100′s of millions of English speaking blogs. My Technorati Authority (rating) is 135. That puts MsSparky.com in the top 20,000 blogs that Technorati tracks. Yes….the Huffington Post is #1. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Combat Support Ass. (CSA), GOV. CONTRACTORS, LOGCAP III - KBR, LOGCAP-Dyncorp, LOGCAP-Fluor, Stanley Baker Hill (SBH), Task Force SAFE. Tags: Combat Support Ass. (CSA), DynCorp, SBH, Task Force SAFE, Wrapping up 2009. 2 Comments »

DoD contractors can no longer rape, plunder and pillage

December 15, 2009 — Ms Sparky

Shay D. Assad, Director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy

In a memorandum dated December 14, 2009, Director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy, Shay D. Assad has directed a Class Deviation be effective immediately. (click HERE for memo)

This Class Deviation, Additional Contractor Requirements and Responsibilities Related to Alleged Crimes By or Against Contractor Personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan provides a new clause that basically says:

All DoD contractors must report ALL crimes committed by contractor employees.
All DoD contractors must report ALL crimes committed against contractor employees.
All DoD contractors must train their employees on how and where to report a crime.
All DoD Contractors must train their employees on where to seek victim and witness protection and victim assistance. (click HERE for UCMJ Chapter 47 Title 10)

All future contracts are to contain this clause and all current contracts are to be modified to the extent practical. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, LOGCAP III - KBR, LOGCAP-Dyncorp, LOGCAP-Fluor, Politics, Rape, Hazing, Discrimination & Harassment, Security Contractors, Stanley Baker Hill (SBH). Tags: DynCorp, Employee Issues-KBR, Fluor. 3 Comments »

Janine Hermanson still seeks answers in Adams electrocution death

December 13, 2009 — Ms Sparky

Nearly four months later, Janine Hermanson still searches for answers regarding the circumstances surrounding the death of her husband Adam Hermanson who was electrocuted and died in his shower. This happened at Triple Canopy’s Camp Olympia in the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq on September 1, 2009.

(For some reason I am having problems with this video viewing properly in FireFox. Internet Explorer seems to be viewing it OK. If you are just seeing a big black box click HERE to go the NBC site to watch the video there. I will get it fixed ASAP….I hope.) (Read the rest of the story here…)