» Working Overseas Ms Sparky

Spc. Beyshee Velez court-martialed for the murder of KBR employee Lucas Trent Vinson

March 13, 2010 — Ms Sparky

Lucas "Trent" Vinson

Soldier court-martialed in man’s killing in Iraq

The trial for Spc. Beyshee Velez will likely take place this summer

By Gregg K. Kakesako-Star Bulletin
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 13, 2010

A 31-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier will face a general court-martial, probably this summer, for allegedly killing a civilian contractor after a daylong standoff at a military base in Iraq last year.

In one of his first actions since assuming command of the 25th Infantry Division last month, Maj. Gen. Bernard Champoux ordered this week that Spc. Beyshee Velez, a combat medic who has served three tours in Iraq, face a court-martial for the death of Lucas T. Vinson, an employee of Houston-based KBR, near Tikrit on Sept. 13. KBR provides services including housing, meals, mail delivery and laundry. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in A Soldiers Story, CONTRACTOR DEATHS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, Lucas Trent Vinson-KBR, Reports & Investigations, Working Overseas. Tags: Arrests, Beyshee Velez, Employee Issues-KBR, Lucas Vinson. 3 Comments »

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. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in CONTRACTOR DEATHS, DBA-AIG, GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, ProPublica, Working Overseas. Tags: Bill Carlisle, DBA-AIG, Iraq, T Christian Miller. 4 Comments »

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…)

David Isenberg: KBR is Asking for It

February 9, 2010 — Ms Sparky

David Isenberg – Huffington Post
Author, Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq (Praeger Security International)
Posted: February 8, 2010 11:54 PM

To paraphrase comedian Henny Youngman’s famous one-liner, take my KBR, please.

After all the bad press U.S. engineering and construction company KBR has received over the years for its operations in Iraq , both during its time as a Halliburton subsidiary and since, one might think it had learned a thing or two about how to avoid sticking its foot in its mouth.

But you would be wrong, As case in point consider the following legal brief KBR filed, which was posted online by the estimable Ms. Sparky — who is to chronicling KBR misdeeds, including those against it own employees, as white is to rice — in regard to the case of Jamie Leigh Jones.

For those who missed this news Ms. Jones is the then 20-year old former KBR/Halliburton worker, who says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad in late July 2005.

The main points are by now well known. She says that just four days after arriving in Iraq she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave.

According to her lawsuit, Jones was raped by “several attackers who first drugged her, then repeatedly raped and injured her, both physically and emotionally.” Jones said that an examination by Army doctors showed she had been raped “both vaginally and anally,” but that the rape kit disappeared after it was handed over to KBR security officers. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Huffington Post, Jamie Jones vs KBR, LAWSUITS, LOGCAP III - KBR, Lawsuits Against KBR, Working Overseas. Tags: Charles Boartz, David Isenberg, Discrimination, Employee Issues-KBR, Harassment, Jamie Leigh Jones, LAWSUITS, Lawsuits Against KBR, Pete Arroyo, Rape, Sexual Harassment. 15 Comments »

Defense contractors to DoD – “The taxman is calling; it’s for you”

January 28, 2010 — Forseti

Contractors ask DoD to reimburse offshore payroll taxes

By ELISE CASTELLI | Jan 27, 2010
In 2008, Congress passed a law to force contractors to pay payroll taxes for employees who are U.S. citizens working for their offshore subsidiaries. The IRS is collecting more taxes as a result, but much of that new tax revenue is leaving government in the form of higher contract costs for the Defense Department.

Defense contractors have billed the department for more than $140 million in reimbursements for payroll tax expenses they’ve paid since the law was passed, a new Government Accountability Office report says.

And that’s just on five contracts — worth a combined $6 billion — that were reviewed by GAO.

Executives from some of the biggest Defense contractors — including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and KBR — told GAO that, before the law was passed, they hired U.S. citizens at their offshore subsidiaries as a way to lower their costs and remain competitive. The companies say they only use the offshore subsidiaries to hire employees to perform work overseas. (Read the rest of the story here…)