go kick some halliburton/kbr ass jamie!

there IS a goddess! thank you for being strong and for continuing to fight FOR YOUR RIGHTS

(which the big dick attempted to take away)

Court Okays Halliburton Rape Trial
By Stephanie Mencimer

Remember Jamie Leigh Jones, the Halliburton/KBR contractor who alleged she was gang raped by her co-workers in Iraq and then imprisoned in a shipping container after she reported the attack to the company? Well, it looks like she's finally get to sue the company, in a real courthouse, over her ordeal.

Her legal saga started after Halliburton failed to take any action against her alleged attackers, and the Justice Department and military also failed to prosecute. Jones then tried to sue the company for failing to protect her. But thanks to an employment contract created during the tenure of former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney, Jones was forced into mandatory binding arbitration, a private forum where Halliburton would hire the arbitrator, all the proceedings would be secret, and she'd have no right to appeal if she lost........

a sunday morning smile (at least for ME)

Halliburton shareholders sue to ‘punish’ company directors

By Stephen C. Webster
To settle charges that its agents bribed Nigerian officials in order to obtain billions of dollars in contracts in the country, Halliburton Co. and KBR agreed in February to pay a combined total of $579 million to the U.S. government. And if that did not sting the company coffers enough, a group of shareholders is now suing the company in Harris County District Court, seeking to “punish” officials who allowed such lax standards that millions of dollars could be spirited away to Nigerian bureaucrats, incurring massive fines and harming shareholders’ profits.

“According to the lawsuit, ‘the defendants caused Halliburton to maintain internal controls that were so deficient that Halliburton insiders were able to divert millions of dollars of company funds to pay illegal bribes to various foreign officials in direct violation of the [Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]. Defendant’s failure in this regard has caused substantial damage to Halliburton,’” Houston Press reports.

Nearly $150 million of the $180 million given was later discovered in a Swiss bank account.............

because we can't forget iraq

and we sure as shite can't forget we still have people there AND we have veterans and civilian contractors back home who were effected by being in iraq.

and unlike the previous story i posted the link to, i sure as shite am NOT surprised to find the name kbr (or halliburton) bandied about

Did toxic chemical in Iraq cause GIs' illnesses?

By SHARON COHEN
AP National Writer

Larry Roberta's every breath is a painful reminder of his time in Iraq. He can't walk a block without gasping for air. His chest hurts, his migraines sometimes persist for days and he needs pills to help him sleep.

James Gentry came home with rashes, ear troubles and a shortness of breath. Later, things got much worse: He developed lung cancer, which spread to his spine, ribs and one of his thighs; he must often use a cane, and no longer rides his beloved Harley.

David Moore's postwar life turned into a harrowing medical mystery: nosebleeds and labored breathing that made it impossible to work, much less speak. His desperate search for answers ended last year when he died of lung disease at age 42.

What these three men - one sick, one dying, one dead - had in common is they were National Guard soldiers on the same stretch of wind-swept desert in Iraq during the early months of the war in 2003.

These soldiers and hundreds of other Guard members from Indiana, Oregon and West Virginia were protecting workers hired by a subsidiary of the giant contractor, KBR Inc., to rebuild an Iraqi water treatment plant. The area, as it turned out, was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, a potent, sometimes deadly chemical linked to cancer and other devastating diseases.............

how much more

are our men and women going to be forced to bear?

we cannot allow this to continue. IF we have to leave them there, let's make sure they have ALL the protection AND shelter AND nurishment they need. they are heroes and we MUST take care of them there and more importantly upon their return here

Undersupplied US soldiers forced to steal water in Iraq

By David Edwards and John Byrne
You thought the lack of armor-plated Humvees was bad.

US soldiers are now being forced to steal water in Iraq. With supplies tight, and the number of trucks carrying potable water even tighter, troops have resorted to stealing water from civilian contractors. Many have also reportedly suffered from dysentery because they were forced to drink untreated water from Iraqi wells.

The shocking news aired Wednesday on Houston-based CBS affiliate KHOU.

It gets worse. Soldiers say the situation has become so dire they were forced to raid the United States’ own airbase in Baghdad for bottled water. They found the water stored in pallets held by civilian contractors, who were supposed to be distributing it.

“It really hit me the day I was with my commander and we’re stealing water,” Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Robey told the station, describing his mission to collect water at the Baghdad International Airport. A second soldier said he’d also stolen water from civilian contractors: “We’d just run out and start grabbing cases of water and start throwing them in the gunner’s hatch,” Private Bryan Hannah quipped.

Soldiers averred that they’d been given two to three liters of water per day by their commanders. But according to the Army’s own field manual, the human body can lose as much as four gallons of water daily in the desert.

Two to three liters isn’t enough, Robey said. “You’ll see guys throw up, you’ll see them pass out.”..........

too bad there is no hell

because the people who deny claims like this one (or give the recipients a hard time) deserve to burn forever

there's a video at the link below (no embed code)

Blind Amputee Has to Fight AIG for New Plastic Leg, Wheelchair

While Executives Get Bonuses, John Woodson Gets "Cheapest They Could Get Away With"

By AVNI PATEL and BRIAN ROSS

An Oklahoma man who lost an eye and a leg in Iraq says the giant insurance company AIG refused to provide him a new plastic leg and fought to keep from paying for a wheelchair or glasses for the eye in which he has 30 percent vision.

AIG has made everything a battle after injury, he says........

and according to this article

kbr (my fav!!!) is STILL being allowed to do electrical work in iraq (makes you feel all warm and cozy, no?)


US Troops Still Dodging Deadly Showers
Military races to inspect more than 90,000 facilities to reduce deadly threat
WASHINGTON - The military is racing to inspect more than 90,000 U.S.-run facilities across Iraq to reduce a deadly threat troops face far off the battlefield: electrocution or shock while showering or using appliances.
About one-third of the inspections so far have turned up major electrical problems, according to interviews and an internal military document obtained by The Associated Press. Half of the problems they found have since been fixed but about 65,000 facilities still need to be inspected, which could take the rest of this year. Senior Pentagon officials were on Capitol Hill this week for briefings on the findings.

The work assigned to Task Force SAFE, which oversees the inspections and repairs, is aimed at preventing deaths like that of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, of Pittsburgh. He died in January 2008, one of at least three soldiers killed while showering since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.........

pic: Pfc. Justin Shults shows some of the burn wounds he received after being electrocuted in a shower facility in Iraq, in this photo taken in January in San Antonio, Texas. Shults suffered third-degree burns on 13-percent of his body. He is suing contractor KBR Inc. for faulty wiring of the facility. (Kin Man Hui / San Antonio Express-News via AP)

listen and learn

curious

how much proof does our government need about this corporation NOT being quite who they say they are (or their products NOT quite doing what they say they'll do nor not do)? i guess as much proof as the pentagon needs to NOT continue to contract with kbr

Diebold 'offices' listed in yellow pages are mostly Wal-Marts
Joe Byrne
Across the country, curious bloggers are calling up their local Diebold offices, and no one is answering.

Utah is among the number of states that now use a partial or fully electronic election system, and Premier Election Solutions, a subsidiary of Diebold, is the company that sold the machines to the state. To convince Utah decision-makers that Diebold was a big company with a substantial presence, Kathy Dopp, founder of UtahCountVotes.org, reported that a company representative told the decision-makers in 2006 that Diebold “has about 20 offices in Utah.” When pressed further, the representative refused to give the locations of any of the offices. In fact, the White Pages lists 18 Diebold offices.

However, when calls were made to all of these offices, only one picked up the phone. And when the addresses of offices listed under Diebold in the White Pages were visited, the addresses turned out to belong to either a Wal-Mart, a Sam's Club, or no building at all. In the end, 16 of the 18 Diebold offices in Utah listed in the White Pages were false listings. One is in Salt Lake, and the other is in Bountiful........

it's good to know

(AND it gives me the warm and fuzzies) our government has no issues with, and forgives all of their trespasses. who? the good ol' boyz of kbr / halliburton of course! why just the other day kbr was awarded a BRAND SPANKING NEW CONTRACT by the pentagon. and believe me, the accusation of bribery was the LEAST of their (kbr/halliburton) worries. (try accusations of rape and murder). so again, i say, it's so wonderful our government can see past all of that turn a blind eye to all of that and HIRE KBR once again. isn't america grand my peeps?


Halliburton, KBR Settle Bribery Allegations
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Halliburton and Kellogg Brown & Root have agreed to pay $579 million in fines related to allegations of foreign bribery, the biggest fines ever paid by U.S. companies in a foreign corruption case, federal authorities and the companies said yesterday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice alleged that Houston-based Halliburton and KBR were part of a joint venture that spent $182 million to bribe Nigerian government officials over a 10-year period to win more than $6 billion in construction contracts.

Halliburton, which owned KBR during the time of the alleged actions and spun it off in April 2007, will be responsible for paying all but $20 million of the penalty.

KBR, one of the top U.S. government contractors, pleaded guilty to violating the federal law banning companies from paying bribes to get business in foreign countries. Halliburton did not admit or deny wrongdoing. ......

huh?

no effing way. ok, this is somewhere president obama MUST step in and put his foot down. kbr should NEVER EVER be awarded an electrical contract by ANYONE much less the pentagon. no. this MUST be reversed and now

KBR wins contract despite criminal probe of deaths
By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – Defense contractor KBR Inc. has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving major electrical work, even as it is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The announcement of the new KBR contract came just months after the Pentagon, in strongly worded correspondence obtained by The Associated Press, rejected the company's explanation of serious mistakes in Iraq and its proposed improvements. A senior Pentagon official, David J. Graff, cited the company's "continuing quality deficiencies" and said KBR executives were "not sufficiently in touch with the urgency or realities of what was actually occurring on the ground."

"Many within DOD (the Department of Defense) have lost or are losing all remaining confidence in KBR's ability to successfully and repeatedly perform the required electrical support services mission in Iraq," wrote Graff, commander of the Defense Contract Management Agency, in a Sept. 30 letter.

Graff rejected the company's claims that it wasn't required to follow U.S. electrical codes for its work on U.S. military facilities in Iraq. KBR has said it would cost an extra $560 million to refurbish buildings in Iraq used by the U.S. military, including Saddam Hussein's palaces, which among other problems are based on a 220-volt standard rather than the American 120-volt standard...........

559 million is NOTHING

to the good ol' boyz at halliburton. money well spent to make this go away (i won't forget though)

oh and i won't forget all the OTHER allegations against them either

Halliburton to pay $559 million to settle bribery probe
By Anna Driver

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Halliburton Co will pay a $559 million fine to end an investigation of its former KBR Inc unit if the U.S. government approves the settlement, the largest penalty against a U.S. company for charges of bribery under federal law.

Halliburton, once headed by former Vice President Dick Cheney, said it was awaiting final approval from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle claims that KBR violated anti-bribery laws by paying kickbacks to Nigerian officials.

Under the settlement, Halliburton would pay $382 million to the Department of Justice and $177 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission in "disgorgement."

KBR did not comment on the proposed settlement. Halliburton said in regulatory filings last July that it was in settlement talks with the government..............

this too makes me happy

no, not the gang rapes, the torture, the kidnapping, the murders, the electrocutions

THE START OF WHAT APPEARS TO BE ACCOUNTABILITY.

i want justice for our men and women and for all of the innocent men and women in iraq (and elsewhere) as well.

i demand justice. my voice wasn't being heard until january 20th 2009. now, i think it just may be

Army accuses KBR contractors of 'negligent homicide' for electrocution

Stephen C. Webster
United States Army investigation has accused former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, along with contractors the company used and two of the firm's supervisors, of 'negligent homicide' in the electrocution of a soldier, according to a published report.

"[A]n Army criminal investigator says the manner of death for Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, has been changed from accidental to negligent homicide because the contractor failed to ensure that 'qualified electricians and plumbers' worked on the barracks where Maseth died," reports the Associated Press.

"Maseth, 24, of Shaler, Pa., outside Pittsburgh, was electrocuted on Jan. 2 when an improperly grounded electric water pump short-circuited and flowed through the pipes," reported ABC in March 2008. "Since the coiled hose was touching his arm, he was hit with an electrical jolt and went into cardiac arrest and died.".................

unlike da liebs

i KNOW what a pdf is (Lieberman doesn’t know what a PDF is?, hat tip to colin mcenroe for that one. i would have NEVER known that about da liebs otherwise)

but this isn't really about da liebs (steamin' pile o' shite that he is). it's about ANOTHER giant steamin' pile o' shite (well two of 'em; king george and kbr)

a handful of men get brought to trial for (allegedly) killing civilians in iraq. what about all of the (alleged) rapes and OTHER (alleged) murders and (alleged) corruption and (alleged) horrid operational procedures?

hmmmmmmmmm

we'll never know. the big boyz at the top are NEVER going to be held accountable. only a few lowly pawns get thrown under the bus (to appease the masses ?????????????? well I'M NOT appeased)

ACLU: 'Secret courts' conceal fraud by military contractors
Muriel Kane
A law originally intended to encourage whistleblowers may have been used by the Bush Justice Department to cover up allegations of fraud by contractors such as Halliburton spin-off KBR.

In 2007, David Rose's "The People vs. the Profiteers" described a "scandal of epic proportions" involving the alleged suppression of dozens of lawsuits against KBR for alleged massive fraud in Iraq.

Those and similar charges are the basis for a complaint (pdf) filed on Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Virginia, which alleges that secrecy provisions added to the False Claims Act (FCA) in 1986 have been used to keep complaints under seal indefinitely and gag whistleblowers who might otherwise speak out.
.......................

this is only the tip of the iceberg

i do not understand why men and women continue to enlist. after what happened to the vietnam vets (the medical troubles they've had AND the problems with the military and va saying those medical issues were service related) and what happened in desert storm and what is happening now. our men and women's lives, it would seem, are worthless (to some, NOT to me)

Soldiers sue Iraq contractor over toxic, cancer-causing dust
Nick Cargo

Sixteen soldiers are suing former Halliburton unit KBR, charging that its employees knowingly exposed them to a carcinogenic chemical in the course of their duties.

McManaway v. KBR, filed Wednesday at the U.S. District Court (Southern District of Indiana, Evansville), seeks to recover medical costs, along with monetary damages and monitoring for health problems including cancer, for sixteen Indiana National Guardsmen based in Tell City who were posted at a water treatment plant that KBR was commissioned to repair shortly after the American invasion, from April to September 2003. The Guardsmen charge that KBR was aware of dangerous levels of sodium dichromate on the premises, used to remove corrosion from pipes. Part of its chemical makeup is hexavalent chromium, which is known to cause lung cancer and birth defects. Sergeant First Class David Moore of Dubois, Indiana, was among those said to be affected: he died this year of chronic interstitial lung disease. His death was ruled service-related...........

can you imagine the living conditions

these men came from in their OWN countries in order to endure what conditions they're under in iraq? (AND at least some of them want to CONTINUE to work for the subcontractor for kbr)

Military Contractor in Iraq Holds Foreign Workers in Warehouses

by: Adam Ashton, McClatchy Newspapers
Baghdad - About 1,000 Asian men who were hired by a Kuwaiti subcontractor to the U.S. military have been confined for as long as three months in windowless warehouses near the Baghdad airport without money or a place to work.

Najlaa International Catering Services, a subcontractor to KBR, an engineering, construction and services company, hired the men, who're from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. On Tuesday, they staged a march outside their compound to protest their living conditions.

"It's really dirty," a Sri Lankan man told McClatchy, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he still wants to work for Najlaa. "For all of us, there are about 12 toilets and about 10 bathrooms. The food - it's three half-liter (one pint) bottles of water a day. Bread, cheese and jam for breakfast. Lunch is a small piece of meat, potato and rice. Dinner is rice and dal, but it's not dal," he said, referring to the Indian lentil dish.

After McClatchy began asking questions about the men on Tuesday, the Kuwaiti contractor announced that it would return them to their home countries and pay them back salaries. Najlaa officials contended that they've cared for the men's basic needs while the company has tried to find them jobs in Iraq...

A subcontractor to KBR hired Nepalese, Bangladeshi, Indian and Sri Lankan men and is now confining them to windowless warehouses near the Baghdad airport with no money or a place to work. (Photo: Times UK)

it speaks for itself

all i have to add is; how many more instances of evil (much less illegalities) are we going to allow? are we not human any more? have we lost our souls? they'll weasel out of this the way they weasel out of everything else they've (allegedly) done wrong (rape, murder and the like)

Halliburton sued for human trafficking
John Byrne

Twelve men recruited in Nepal died after forced transfer to Iraq, lawfirm says

Thirteen Nepali men were recruited and held against their will for thirteen months in a human trafficking scheme engineered and perpetrated by Halliburton and its Jordanian contractor, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in California federal court.

The Nepali men, each between the ages of 18 and 27, were allegedly hired as kitchen staff by the then-Halliburton subsidiary KBR and its Jordanian subcontractor, Daoud & Partners. Once they arrived in Jordan, however, their passports were seized and they were dispatched to Iraq.

"Tragically, as the men were being transported to Iraq, a car containing twelve of the men was stopped by members of the Ansar al-Sunna Army, an insurgent group," the Washington lawfirm Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll writes. "The 12 men in the car were taken hostage and executed by the insurgents. The executions were filmed and posted on the Internet. The Inspector General for the United States Department of Defense investigated and confirmed the facts related to the fate of the 12 men, which led to increased enforcement of anti-trafficking measures by the United States.......................

blackwater, halliburton, kbr

they have all been accused of horrible crimes. from rape to murder to NOT PROTECTING our troops (by allowing things such as shoddy electrical work to occur in iraq --where some of our troops have been electrocuted) to overcharging for services provided in iraq (water, food, etc).

six letters to six of the men who (allegedly) MURDERED (i think i have to say allegedly although there is a great deal of evidence in this case. no one has been brought to trial so i must say allegedly. same with the rapes and shoddy construction). it's a start. it's the same thing with lynndie england though. sure the subhumans who (allegedly) committed these crimes may indeed be guilty but the people who are REALLY guilty and who will NEVER BE BROUGHT TO TRIAL OR NEVER MADE TO PAY are the people RUNNING HALLIBURTON, KBR AND BLACKWATER AND OUR KING AND HIS COURT. they are the ones who really should be brought to trial and made accountable.

Justice Dept. Moves Toward Charges Against Contractors in Iraq Shooting

By Del Quentin Wilber and Karen DeYoung

Washington Post Staff Writers

Federal prosecutors have sent target letters to six Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a September shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, indicating a high likelihood the Justice Department will seek to indict at least some of the men, according to three sources close to the case.

The guards, all former U.S. military personnel, were working as security contractors for the State Department, assigned to protect U.S. diplomats and other non-military officials in Iraq. The shooting occurred when their convoy arrived at a busy square in central Baghdad and guards tried to stop traffic.

An Iraqi government investigation concluded that the security contractors fired without provocation. Blackwater has said its personnel acted in self-defense.............

i would like to understand why anyone would

work for halliburton or kbr. why would someone? money? adrenaline? guns? torture? adventure? mercenaries? excitement? (R A P E???)

why are we allowing military contractors to be above the law? i don't know if they're guilty or not. i cannot say. THEY HAVE NOT BEEN BROUGHT TO TRIAL. that's INSANE.

Alleged KBR Rape Victim Sues the U.S.

There’s a new lawsuit in the sad and sordid saga of Jamie Leigh Jones.

A former KBR employee who made national headlines with her heart-wrenching account of being raped while working at Camp Hope in Baghdad, Jones filed a lawsuit several days ago in Houston federal court against the United States of America. She filed a lawsuit against her former employer more than a year ago.

The Houston woman is suing the government for negligent supervision and hiring of its contractors and for failing to provide a safe living and working environment.

Jones claims that in July 2005, she was living in a two-story barracks with 420 men and only 20 other women, and that the facility was under the “direct control and supervision” of the U.S. government and its employees. Jones complained about constant sexual harassment and asked to be moved to a safer location, but her superiors did not transfer her.

Instead, later that same evening, according to the lawsuit, Jones was drugged and “brutally raped” in her room by several Halliburton/KBR firefighters............

an AHA! moment

now it makes sense to me. i had read kbr BANNED CELLPHONES (for their 'deployed' employees). i sure didn't know why. they had some bullshite nonsense out there about safety. i can only wonder WHOSE safety

KBR Bans Cell Phones and Silences Rape Victims

Posted by: Cara

KBR, the defense contractor doing a lot of heavy lifting in the upholding of our occupation of Iraq, has banned the use of personal cell phones by its employees. KBR and its previous parent company Halliburton are notorious for many things. One of those things is the rape and cover up of rape committed by its male employees against its female employees.

How are the two related? Well, the first and most widely-known woman to come forward with an allegation of rape and cover up is Jamie Leigh Jones. Jones was gang raped by her coworkers, then locked inside of a shipping container for days in order to prevent her from reporting the attack. The Justice Department never brought charges against her assailants, and extremely important evidence in the case was “lost” by KBR. But the relevant part is how Jones escaped: through the use of a cell phone. A “sympathetic guard” loaned the phone to her, which she used to call her father in the United States. Her father subsequently called his congressperson, who ended up securing Jones’ release. If that “sympathetic guard” (you know, the one who didn’t set her free) hadn’t handed her that cell phone, god only knows where Jamie Leigh Jones would be today. But it just might not be alive, let alone acting as a major anti-rape and anti-KBR activist..........

troop deaths

by electrocution. some form of torture by the enemy? well if you consider king george and his court AND their buds the war contractors our enemies. (and i do)

i've written about this before and it's been published even in the msm before. yet once again, here we are just effing talking about it AND NOT DOING A DAMN THING ABOUT IT

Americans being electrocuted in Iraq 'on an almost daily basis'
Stephen C. Webster
Among the seemingly innumerable scandal-worthy stories which have so marked the war in Iraq is one growing tragedy which has been largely ignored: shoddy electrical work by U.S. contractors at military bases leading to numerous electrical fires, troops receiving painful shocks, and even death by electrocution.

In January 2008, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, a 24-year-old weapons expert, was electrocuted while showering in Baghdad's green zone. According to a criminal investigation by the Army, an electrical water pump on the building's roof shorted out from not being properly grounded when installed. On March 19 his parents sued the contractor, KBR Inc., for Sgt. Maseth's death.

According to the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette:

"The Defense Contract Management Agency, we believe, authorized [the contractor] to the tune of millions of dollars to make the repairs. And they never made the repairs," Mr. Cavanaugh said. "And we don't know why. A simple repair -- just ground the building -- and Ryan would be alive today."........