Childs recently returned from Iraq, where he is taking part in a yearlong review aimed at correcting electrical hazards on U.S. bases. He told CNN that thousands of buildings in Iraq and Afghanistan are so badly wired that troops are at serious risk of death or injury.
The diary also reveals KBR's pattern of outrageous overcharges that have cost taxpayers millions if not billions.
The Bush Administration decided that the U.S. military is somehow not up to the task in providing engineering and other critical services for our U.S. troops, especially when we are at war. President Bush, Vice President Cheney and then Defense Secretary Rumsfeld decided to outsource services traditionally performed by the military to the private sector. I do not suppose Dick Cheney's relationship with Halliburton had anything to do with this decision.
Former President Eisenhower, a highly popular and widely respected World War II General and Republican, had sternly warned the American people about the potential dangers of a military/industrial complex sixty years ago. The former President essentially told us not to go there.
Did his GOP pay attention?
Of course they did not because the Republican Party had become mired in a culture of corruption and greed that began with the Presidency of Ronald Reagan and culminated during the term of the worst President in U.S. history, George W. Bush.
Thanks to Republican efforts to privatize-baby-privatize most of the military services, our troops and U.S. taxpayers are stuck paying the price for greed mongering war profiteers who do not even know the meaning of such silly notions as personal patriotism, integrity, morality and ethics. Forget about possessing a conscience, the notion of responsibility or the simple concept of doing what is right for one's family, friend, community, state and country,
KBR and Halliburton are driven by one motive alone:
Profit, Baby, Profit.
The outcome: Yahoo News.com:
Ron Vance, who served as a sergeant in the California Army National Guard, remembers being knocked out cold in a shower building in 2004 in Taji, Iraq. He said he screamed and fell while showering, suffering burns on his back and shoulders. Another soldier who tried to pry him from the shower head also was injured. Vance, 57, of Fresno, Calif., said he's still too traumatized to shower without his wife nearby.
The ultimate tragedy: From CNN:
In January 2008, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth was electrocuted in a shower in the same quarters where Hummer lived the previous summer. A follow-up investigation "found nearly all of the same problems and deficiencies that had been reported one year previously," a committee report states.
From Yahoo.com News:
KBR is the target of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Maseth's family. They claim the company knew there were electrical problems in the building where he died, but didn't fix them. His mother testified last year on Capitol Hill.
Army investigators have since reclassified Maseth's death as negligent homicide caused by KBR and two of its supervisors. An Army investigator said KBR failed to ensure work was done by qualified electricians and plumbers. The case is under legal review.
Naturally KBR refuses to take responsibility for Staff Sgt. Maseth's death.
"KBR is not responsible for the electrocution deaths widely reported, including that of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth," Heather Browne, a KBR spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.
So who is responsible, Ms. Browne? The devil?
Here we go again, another group of fat cats dodge their taxes and blame their evil doing on someone or something else.
According to CNN's report, a U.S. Army Inspector says shoddy wiring is everywhere in Iraq.
Thousands of buildings at U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan have such poorly installed wiring that American troops face life-threatening risks, a top inspector for the Army says.
These wires installed in Iraq are some of the most important to ensure safety. They all need to be replaced.
And:
Of the nearly 30,000 buildings the Army's "Task Force Safe" has examined so far, Childs said more than half "failed miserably." And 8,527 had such serious problems that inspectors gave them a "flash" warning, meaning repairs had to be completed in four hours or the facility evacuated.
He said the majority of those buildings were wired by contractor KBR, based in Houston, Texas. KBR has faced extensive criticism from Congress over its performance in the war zone. KBR has defended its performance and argued it was not to blame for any fatalities
Again I ask, whose fault is it?
Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, a Green Beret, died by accident. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, two soldiers found him dead in the shower "from cardiac arrest caused by an apparent accidental electrocution." The Department of Defense says that the incident is under investigation.
Staff Sgt. Maseth died because someone screwed up, thank you.
We should not be in the least bit surprised by KBR's ethically bankrupt ethos and its tradition of cowardice and greed. This company has been dodging its taxes for years.
The Houston Chronicle reported that KBR has been using shell companies to hide its money in off shore accounts in order to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
"More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq - including about 10,500 Americans - are listed as employees of two companies that exist in a computer file on the fourth floor of a building on a palm-studded boulevard here in the Caribbean. Neither company has an office or phone number in the Cayman Islands.
The Defense Department has known since at least 2004 that KBR was avoiding taxes by declaring its American workers as employees of Cayman Islands shell companies, and officials said the move allowed KBR to perform the work more cheaply, saving Defense dollars.
But the use of the loophole results in a significantly greater loss of revenue to the government as a whole, particularly to the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. And the creation of shell companies in places such as the Cayman Islands to avoid taxes has long been attacked by members of Congress."
KBR's sleazy practice of avoiding taxes is bad news for Texas and for KBR employees, too, if they should lose their jobs. But dodging taxes sure is a win win for war profiteers like KBR.
"In addition, the practice enables KBR to avoid paying unemployment taxes in Texas, where the company is registered, amounting to between $20 and $559 per American employee per year, depending on the company's rate of turnover.
As a result, workers hired through the Cayman Island companies cannot receive unemployment assistance should they lose their jobs."
I combed through the Houston Chronicle's archives to see if the newspaper had covered KBR's alleged criminal negligence and incompetence in Iraq but so far I have not found any reports to this effect. Nor I have I found anything relevant concerning KBR and its role in Staff Sgt. Maseth's death.
In the end it does not really matter whether or not the Houston Chronicle or any Texas newspapers decide to do thorough investigative reporting of KBR and it's role in Iraq. Because of the powerful influence KBR wields papers here will likely be forced to sweep the story under the rug.
Those of us in the netroots cover the stuff that is usually sent through journalism's buzz saws or hidden on the last pages of the obituaries.
The netroots is like a genie that has been let out of its bottle. We ain't going back in. We will tell the stories the fat cats in power don't want us to tell.
Newspapers should not wonder so much why their readerships are declining daily. Much of the news that is fit to print is not being printed. |
