KBR poisons soldiers, taxpayers paying

This video from the USA says about itself:

Jan 9, 2009

Vice President Dick Cheney is asked about how former Halliburton subsidiary KBR knowingly exposed members of Indiana’s National Guard to cancer causing chemicals at a water treatment plant in Iraq.

Sign IAVA’s petition here–

http://www.iava.org

Read more about it here–

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/23/kbr-indiana-chemical/

From the blog of Ryan J. Reilly in the USA:

KBR, Guilty In Iraq Negligence, Wants Taxpayers To Foot The Bill

Posted: 01/09/2013 9:37 am EST

WASHINGTON — Sodium dichromate is an orange-yellowish substance containing hexavalent chromium, an anti-corrosion chemical. To Lt. Col. James Gentry of the Indiana National Guard, who was stationed at the Qarmat Ali water treatment center in Iraq just after the 2003 U.S. invasion, it was “just different-colored sand.” In their first few months at the base, soldiers were told by KBR contractors running the facility the substance was no worse than a mild irritant.

Gentry was one of approximately 830 service members, including active-duty soldiers and members of the National Guard and reserve units from Indiana, South Carolina, West Virginia and Oregon, assigned to secure the water treatment plant, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Sodium dichromate is not a mild irritant. It is an extreme carcinogen. In November 2009, at age 52, Gentry died of cancer. The VA affirmed two months later that his death was service-related.

In November, a jury found KBR, the military’s largest contractor, guilty of negligence in the poisoning of a dozen soldiers, and ordered the company to pay $85 million in damages. Jurors found KBR knew both of the presence and toxicity of the chemical. Other lawsuits against KBR are pending.

KBR, however, says taxpayers should be on the hook for the verdict, as well as more than $15 million the company has spent in its failed legal defense, according to court documents and attorneys involved with the case.

KBR’s contract with the U.S. to rebuild Iraq’s oil infrastructure after the 2003 invasion includes an indemnity agreement protecting the company from legal liability, KBR claims in court filings. That agreement, KBR insists, means the federal government must pay the company’s legal expenses plus the verdict won by 12 members of the Oregon National Guard who were exposed to the toxin at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant.

The military disagrees. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contracting officer told KBR in November 2011 that litigation costs “are not covered by the indemnity agreement.”

The public doesn’t know what the indemnity agreement actually says because the military considers it classified. Until recently, the veterans exposed to the toxin couldn’t know either, nor could attorneys at the Department of Justice, who were left battling the contract in the dark, according to a source there.

Michael Doyle, a Houston-based lawyer who helped the successful suit against KBR, told The Huffington Post the military declassified the indemnification agreement on Dec. 21 and gave it to him under a protective order that banned him from sharing the language to parties not involved in the case. John A. Elolf, a spokesman for KBR, confirmed the declassification of the agreement and said the contractor also was prevented from providing a copy. HuffPost has requested the document under the Freedom of Information Act from the Corps of Engineers.

Doyle said the agreement may mean a taxpayer “bailout” for KBR. “It’s basically saying that no matter if we’re guilty of — willful misconduct, poisoning soldiers — taxpayers have to pay to cover us as well as whatever we decide to pay on lawyers at whatever rates and all these fees,” Doyle said. “That’s a pretty good bailout.”

…

It’s unclear how many defense contractors have secret indemnification agreements with the military. Under the law, most government agencies are banned from entering open-ended indemnification agreements, but the Pentagon and a handful of other agencies were exempted in an executive order signed by President Richard Nixon in 1971.

KBR originally claimed it didn’t know about the deadly toxin until the spring of 2003. Documents produced in the lawsuit, however, revealed that KBR knew the chemical was being stockpiled and used in massive quantities at the water treatment facility as early as January of that year. Prior to the U.S. invasion, Iraqi workers would treat water at the plant with sodium dichromate before injecting it under pressure into the ground, driving oil to the surface. Sodium dichromate helped increase the life of pipelines and pumps by preventing corrosion.

Soldiers assigned to guard the facility said the chemical dust came from bags stacked both inside and outside the plant, which some soldiers would sit on or use for protection from the wind. Wind spread the orange powder from the thousands of 100-pound bags. Gentry estimated the dust covered about half the plant’s area.

“There were soldiers that actually brought it up, asked what it was, and they were told it was a mild irritant at first,” Rocky Bixby, 45, a plaintiff in the Oregon National Guard suit that bears his name, told HuffPost.

“They had this information and didn’t share it,” Gentry said in a deposition two days before his final Christmas, in 2008. “I’m dying now because of it.”

Another soldier, Larry Roberta, now 48, was exposed to the chemical after a gust of wind blew it into his eye and into a chicken patty he was eating. After washing his face and mouth, he tried washing the chicken, because it was the only food he had left for the day. “It tastes like a mouthful of nickels,” Roberta said. “I just kept washing my mouth and I couldn’t get that taste out.”

Roberta said he now requires an oxygen tank because he has less than 60 percent of his lung function and gets migraines stemming from the eye that was exposed to the chemical. He had surgery to fix the muscle at the top of his stomach that prevented food from coming back up. “I can’t throw up, I can’t even burp,” Roberta said. “You know, when you can’t burp, the air has to come out the other end, which makes me the stinky dog that nobody wants to let in the house.”

Roberta said he doesn’t think U.S. taxpayers should have to pay for KBR’s mistakes.

“The United States Army Corps of Engineers is not in the business of restoring oilfields, therefore they hired KBR as their subject expert,” Roberta said. “KBR was paid a good sum of money to do a job and unfortunately it didn’t get done well. … The end results were okay, but they made some mistakes along the way.”

Gentry’s wife said the “bailout” fits a KBR pattern.

“Whether it’s morally, ethically or even fiscally, there was no accountability then and there is no accountability now,” LouAnn Grube Gentry told The Huffington Post. “In fact, they continue their negligence and indifference. And just as an example of that is they continue to overbill the government for the legal fees. And to me that in itself proves that they are profit-mongering and their sole motivation is profit.”

Gentry said her husband initially declined to get involved in the litigation because of his loyalty to the National Guard and the Army. Gentry even praised KBR’s work during his second tour in Iraq, calling company safety measures “top grade” during a deposition. He decided to join the litigation late in his life because he felt KBR was being dishonest about what it knew about the chemical.

“Once KBR denied accountability, denied knowing, my husband became very angry,” Gentry said.

A federal jury in Oregon found on Nov. 2 that KBR negligently exposed troops to the toxic dust and ordered the company to pay $85 million in noneconomic and punitive damages to the Oregon National Guard members. A separate suit against KBR on behalf of national guardsmen from both Indiana and West Virginia, as well as troops from the U.K., is pending in federal court in Houston. That case awaits a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals on whether the case can proceed with claims based on wartime activity.

Bixby, who said he was at the water treatment plant for as many as five days, said it makes no sense for taxpayers to pick up the bill for KBR’s mistakes.

“I think it’s fraudulent and I think it’s criminal on their part to do this,” Bixby told HuffPost.

Secret indemnity agreements shouldn’t be a problem in the future, because of a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 pushed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). The act requires the Pentagon to disclose indemnification clauses that hold military contractors harmless and to justify the agreements to Congress.

“What KBR received — and Oregon soldiers and the American taxpayers may be stuck paying for — is a get out of jail free card that no one outside of the Pentagon had any say in giving them,” Wyden said in a statement last month. “Thanks to that plum deal, KBR could be let off the hook after negligently exposing Oregon servicemembers to toxic chemicals. Some indemnification agreements are justified, but many are not, and the Pentagon should have to justify these agreements to Congress.”

Related articles

• War Criminals (brainiac-conspiracy.typepad.com)
• Defense Contractor Guilty Of Poisoning Soldiers Wants Taxpayers To Pay (huffingtonpost.com)
• KBR May Have Knowingly Poisoned U.S. Soldiers in Iraq, But It Won’t Pay a Penny (pogoblog.typepad.com)
• KBR, Guilty In Iraq Negligence, Wants Taxpayers To Foot The Bill (blacklistednews.com)
• KBR, Guilty In Iraq Negligence, Wants Taxpayers To Foot The Bill (anastasia-1782128.newsvine.com)
• War Contractor: Feds Should Pay Lawsuit Damages (abcnews.go.com)
• KBR shouldn’t be able to sue government, Oregon members of Congress tell the Pentagon (oregonlive.com)
• KBR May Be Abusing Indemnification Provision in Iraq Contract (pogoblog.typepad.com)

Convicted KBR corporation British police partner

This video is called Criminal investigation of Halliburton’s Nigerian operation.

From daily News Line in Britain:

Saturday, 11 August 2012

KBR FINED $402m IS TO BE POLICE PARTNER

KELLOG, Brown and Root (KBR) is on the shortlist for the ‘Business Partnering for Police’ (BPP) project.

It is the company which pleaded guilty before an American court to engaging in a scheme between 1994 and 2004 to bribe Nigerian officials with significant financial payments in order to secure business.

KBR was then a subsidiary of Halliburton, of which later US Vice President Dick Cheney was then the boss.

The company was fined $402 million in 2009.

A letter-before-claim was sent on Thursday to the West Midlands Police threatening legal action over the approach of the authority to selecting its shortlist for the project.

The BPP project aims to contract out aspects of the police service to the private sector.

Under the relevant Procurement Regulations, West Midlands Police is required to exclude KBR from the procurement process as a company convicted of bribery offences, unless it considers that there are ‘overriding requirements in the general interest’.

What appears to have happened here is that, in response to a ‘Pre-Qualification Questionnaire’, KBR indicated that it had not been found guilty of bribery offences and West Midlands Police has blindly accepted that indication.

The letter-before-claim also raises concerns about G4S and Serco, and the extent to which West Midlands Police has actively considered concerns that the companies have been involved in acts of grave misconduct.

Public Interest Lawyers are instructed by Ms Robina Khan, a resident of Birmingham who is concerned about the type of companies to which vast amounts of taxpayers’ money may be directed as part of the BPP project.

Robina Khan, the Claimant, said yesterday: ‘There is already a fragile relationship between the police and the community.

‘Introducing private companies into policing activities will only weaken this trust further.

‘Looking at what companies like KBR and G4S are doing in other countries, it is only right that we question their human rights records, particularly when they stand to benefit from taxpayers’ money.

‘The procurement process is a shambles and consideration should have been given to the human rights records of these companies at the outset. Human rights should be upheld consistently.’

G4S has reportedly extended its contract to protect the British embassy in Afghanistan’s capital in a deal understood to be worth £72 million: here.

The public sector still has “a lot” to learn from prat-falling Olympic privateer G4S, Britain’s Defence Minister said today: here.

Cancer water for US soldiers in Iraq

This video from the United States Senate is called US soldiers exposed to Sodium Dichromate in Iraq at KBR’s facility.

From Associated Press in the USA:

Soldiers may have been exposed to toxic chemical

JASPER, Ind. — The Indiana National Guard is notifying nearly 600 soldiers who served in Iraq that they may have drunk water tainted with a carcinogen at an Iraqi treatment plant.

During a U.S. Senate hearing in June, senators learned that sodium dichromate — a cancer-causing chemical that can also cause breathing problems — was used at the Qarmat Ali water plant near Basra, Iraq.

Guard spokeswoman Lt. Col. Deedra Thombleson told The Herald of Jasper on Monday that the Guard has sent letters to most of the 140 current and former soldiers known to have been at that treatment plant between May and September 2003.

The addresses for 18 of those soldiers could not be found to send them letters notifying them of their possible exposure.

Thombleson said 448 other Guardsmen are also being contacted to determine if they were ever at the plant. Of the 588 soldiers being sent letters, she said 138 are back in Iraq. …

According to the testimony heard June 20 by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, sodium dichromate was used at the Basra facility as a corrosion inhibitor in water.

Indiana National Guard officials learned of the potential exposure June 27.

Paul Eckert of Jasper received his notification letter Friday. He served in the Guard for 10 years and was in Iraq with the Jasper-based 1st Battalion, 152nd Regiment from February 2003 to February 2004.

During his tour, Eckert went to the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant several times with a group to pick up water and supplies for their unit.

When he returned to Jasper in 2004, Eckert, 38, said he noticed a change in his health.

“I never snored or had breathing problems until I got back from Iraq,” he said Monday. “I have a lack of energy, and I didn’t know why. I’ve always been in top shape.”

Eckert also noticed blotches on his skin that burned and itched. When he got it checked out at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Louisville, Ky., he said he was given a medicated lotion that didn’t help his condition, he said. …

A fact sheet provided by the Guard states that exposure to sodium dichromate can cause sores in the nose and sores on the skin that tend not to heal.

Other symptoms include skin irritation, tearing and eye irritation, runny or bleeding nose as well as sneezing, coughing, wheezing and pain in the chest when breathing. Fever, nausea, vomiting and upset stomach are other symptoms.

Long-term exposure to the chemical can cause lung cancer, the Guard’s fact sheet says.

Eckert wonders if his late comrade, David Moore, might have been sickened by the chemical. Moore, of Dubois, died earlier this year from what doctors called interstitial lung disease.

While in Iraq, Moore escorted Eckert’s group to the water treatment plant and drank the water the team brought back, Eckert said.

Moore’s sister, Beth Pfau, said Monday that her brother had serious breathing problems after returning home in 2004. He saw specialists at Indiana University Hospital and elsewhere, but no one could figure out what was causing the problem.

“His breathing got worse and worse,” she said. “He was on oxygen at home for a while.”

Pfau said that in early January her brother checked into the VA hospital in Louisville, where he was eventually put on a ventilator.

He was 42 when he died at the hospital Feb. 4. She said her family has not heard from the Guard but they plan to contact officials.

Sodium dichromate is the same chemical residents in Hinkley, Calif., were exposed to and highlighted in the movie “Erin Brockovich.”

Staff Writer Sally Petty contributed to this report.

This Associated Press item does not say who put the poison in the US soldiers’ drinking water. The answer is, KBR corporation, then part of Halliburton, Dick Cheney‘s conglomerate.

Meanwhile, from the blog of US Congress Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

The Oversight Committee is currently holding a hearing, “Deficient Electrical Systems at U.S. Facilities in Iraq.” The hearing will examine electrical problems leading to the injuries and deaths of military personnel and the Department of Defense’s management and oversight of contractors. Chairman Henry Waxman has been investigating the situation for several months, see his letter to Secretary of Defense Gates. Witnesses from the Defense Department Inspector General’s office, Defense Contract Management Agency and KBR, Inc. will testify.

Pentagon Attempted To Cover-Up KBR’s Negligence In Electrocution Of U.S. Soldier: here.

Use of Contractors in Iraq Costs Billions, Report Says: here.