For more grizzly details from the KBR suit, check out ZP Heller's post from last week.  

Watch more at www.theyoungturks.com

Steve Fainaru, Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the Washington Post and author of the book Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq, discusses a highly publicized September 16, 2007 incident at Baghdad's Nisour Square, in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed by employees of security contractor Blackwater Worldwide.

As of December 8, 2008, five of the guards involved are currently facing manslaughter charges brought by the U.S. government; a sixth guard has plead guilty to similar charges.

Complete video at: fora.tv

Blackwater became the first armed U.S. private contractor to face legal justice today.  The Justice Department has made public a manslaughter indictment for the guards accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisoor Square in 2007.  Five of those six guards surrendered in Utah today, and the sixth struck a plea deal in Washington, DC.  The move to surrender in Utah was a sneaky legal strategy devised to try the case in a far more conservative venue than DC, where Blackwater, the Iraq war, and President Bush are none too popular right now.

Wherever this case is eventually tried, however, it reflects the first backbone we've seen from the Justice Department regarding mercenaries like Blackwater.  Scott Horton, a Hofstra law professor who just wrote a study on legal accountability for private security contractors, recently told The Nation's Jeremy Scahill:

"The Justice Department has had this matter for fourteen months and has done almost everything imaginable to walk away from it--including delivering a briefing to Congress in which they suggested that they lacked legal authority to press charges.  They did this notwithstanding evidence collected by the first teams on the scene that suggested an ample basis to prosecute."

The scandals for KBR just keep coming.  The former Halliburton subsidiary responsible for the sexual assault of Jamie Leigh Jones and the accidental electrocution of a U.S. soldier is now subject of a class-action lawsuit for exposing employees to "unsafe water, food, and hazardous fumes" at the largest U.S. installation in Iraq. 

According to the Army Times, Joshua Eller, a former technician with the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, said that while he was stationed at Balad Air Force Base in 2006, he experienced skin lesions that spread and became worse, along with debilitating blisters on his feet, vomiting, cramping, diarrhea, and severe abdominal pain.

As former KBR Water Purification Specialist Ben Carter described in this clip from Iraq for Sale and in his Congressional testimony, KBR failed to provide adequate water safety, resulting in toxic drinking and bathing water.  This war profiteer also failed to manage a medical incinerator properly, instead disposing medical waste and human remains in an open air burn pit.  Eller claims that at one point, he saw a wild dog running around the base with a human arm in its mouth that KBR had dumped into the pit.  And the grizzly kicker, the suit accuses KBR of using mortuary trucks that "still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice" later served to U.S. troops. 

It's high time we hold KBR and Halliburton accountable.  Hopefully, Congress will pass Rep. Jan Schakowsky's bill to phase out private military contractors altogether over the next five years.  Until then, I fear these scandals stemming from KBR's blatant disregard for the welfare of our soldiers in Iraq will continue.  

From Progressive Future's Kate Drazner:

Two weeks ago, when I first posted my interview with Ben Carter, many people applauded him for having the courage to come forward and talk about his first-hand experience in Iraq with Halliburton subsidiary KBR. He described, in great detail, KBR's negligence in their contract to provide safe non-potable water to the troops.

Hundreds and hundreds responded by e-mailing DoD Chief Financial Officer Tina Jonas, telling her not to give KBR another penny of the government's money until a full public investigation was fulfilled. Note: After receiving an influx of emails from activists, Ms. Jonas blocked her email address. We have now made the action into a petition which will be delivered to her.  We also shared Ben's testimony on the Brave New Films documentary, Iraq For Sale.

Not everyone was supportive. One angry young man responded negatively on the blogs. He said I was presenting heresy as fact, and accused me of not providing enough evidence to back up Ben's claims. I guess he wasn't convinced of Ben's story, even though it perfectly aligned with previous reports in the press, ranging from the breaking of the dirty water story to Senator Clinton's push for an investigation of KBR.

KBR, the largest US civilian contractor in Iraq, is being accused of covering up rape charges, overbilling the US government and exposing their employees to hazardous chemicals. Al Jazeera's Tom Ackerman reports on one family suing them for killing their son in a wrongful death.

Greg Mitchell has more from HuffPo:

I've written often here about my friend Cheryl Harris, whose son Ryan Maseth was electrocuted and died in Iraq. You remember: the military lied and told her he had carried an electrical appliance into the shower. I helped her trace a total of at least a dozen other electrocutions and she had been instrumental in getting Congress, and the Pentagon, to probe the issue -- and she finally testified before Democrats (and some Republicans) in Congress yesterday.

She is also suing KBR, the contractors in charge, and two former KBR people also blew the whistle yesterday. Another mother, Larraine McGee, who lost a son in Iraq accused KBR of "homicide" yesterday.

What's it going to take for us to hold the Iraq War profiteers accountable?  The Bush administration's $3 trillion war in Iraq has been the direct cause of our current recession, and yet private defense contractors continue to reap billions in profits.  I'm not even talking about KBR for the moment.  That loathesome Cheney-backed Halliburton subsidiary has actually been the focus of a bit of media and Congressional attention recently (though not enough) for contaminating our troops' water supplies, ignoring electrical safety standards that led to troop casualties, and dodging hundreds of millions in tax payments.  No, I'm talking about L-3, the second largest employer in the Iraq occupation behind KBR.  

L-3 makes about $1 billion a year off of the outsourcing of intelligence gathering in Iraq.  The U.S. government hired L-3 to work with the military in interrogating and running background checks on Iraqi prisoners and civilians.  L-3  now employs approximately 7,000 translators and 300 intelligence experts in Iraq, and has grown to become the ninth largest defense contractor in the U.S and the sixth largest Iraq War profiteer.  While this outsourcing alone is cause for alarm, it is how L-3 runs its company that is particularly egregious.  

From Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: 

Last week, I spoke at a conference organized by NYU's Center on Law and Security called "Privatizing Defense: Blackwater, Contractors, and American Security." Also present at the conference were Blackwater Worldwide vice president Martin Strong and a lawyer for Blackwater, David Hammond. At the conference, I confronted Strong on Blackwater's killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square on September 16, 2007. The day after our exchange, the Bush Administration extended Blackwater's Iraq "security" contract for another year.

New Inspector General report finds that Halliburton delivered contaminated water to US bases in Iraq.

More at therealnews.com and at Iraq for Sale

When I first met Ben Carter by telephone in January of 2006, he was somewhat of a lone voice shouting into an empty stadium. He had been working for Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR)—a Halliburton subsidiary that had billions of dollars worth of government contracts in Iraq—as a water contamination specialist. I was working with Brave New Films on a documentary (Iraq For Sale) about war profiteering companies who used the war as a way to line their pockets with gads of tax-payer cash for such things a bag of washed laundry at $100 a pop, or $45 for a six pack of Coke.

The war had been outsourced and privatized, and the likes of KBR were not so privately robbing the country blind with cost-plus contracts. Based on this bright idea, the more a company spent, say, on that Hummer for the boss running the ice cream stand for the troops on leave in Kuwait, the more that company made. Or rather, when looked at from the public's side of the ledger, the more the taxpayer paid.

If they supported the troops any better, they'd be killing them.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.

A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.

The Pentagon's inspector general found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations.

It was impossible to link the dirty water definitively to all the illnesses, according to the report. But it said KBR's water quality "was not maintained in accordance with field water sanitary standards" and the military-run sites "were not performing all required quality control tests."

Earlier this month CIA Director Michael Hayden testified before Congress and admitted private contractors were employed to waterboard al Qaeda detainees.

According to a Wall Street Journal article posted on CorpWatch:

"CIA Director Michael V. Hayden was asked whether contractors were involved in waterboarding al Qaeda detainees. He replied: 'I'm not sure of the specifics. I'll give you a tentative answer: I believe so.' An agency spokesman declined to clarify the answer.

According to two current and former intelligence officials, the use of contracting at the CIA's secret sites increased quickly in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, in part because the CIA had little experience in detentions and interrogation. Using nongovernment employees also helped maintain a low profile, they said. The sites were designed to handle only the most sensitive detainees."

So not only is the U.S. goverment outsourcing the war and its disastrous aftermath to private companies, it's even outsourcing the torture of prisoners.  Then, the CIA destroys the evidence.  Convenient.

Yes, that's "moderate" Susan Collins, who lies about self-imposed term limits, wholeheartedly supports Samuel Alito, walks arm in arm with President Bush and, as this video shows, thinks that Blackwater's stealing your taxpayer money so they can kill people and cover it up deserves to be ignored.

But other profiteers shouldn't get jealous of Blackwater. She's formed a protectiion racket for them too. 

Watch the video! 

Hard to imagine. G-d, this is getting tiring.

WASHINGTON - Blackwater Worldwide repaired and repainted its trucks immediately after a deadly September shooting in Baghdad, making it difficult to determine whether enemy gunfire provoked the attack, according to people familiar with the government's investigation of the incident.
 
Damage to the vehicles in the convoy has been held up by Blackwater as proof that its security guards were defending themselves against an insurgent ambush when they fired into a busy intersection, leaving 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

(snip)

The repairs essentially destroyed evidence that Justice Department investigators hoped to examine in a criminal case that has drawn worldwide attention. The Sept. 16 shooting has strained U.S. relations with the Iraqi government, which wants Blackwater expelled from the country. It also has become a flash point in the debate over whether contractors are immune from legal consequences for their actions in a war zone.

Nobody accountable for anything. Ever.

This crap is the reason the "Real I.D." b.s. is scaring me.

(AP) Some travelers may be vulnerable to identity theft after petitioning the government a year ago to have their names removed from lists that restrict them from flying.

As many as 247 travelers who petitioned the government between Oct. 6, 2006, and Feb. 13, 2007, to have their names removed from those lists may be vulnerable, according to a congressional investigation.

The investigation into the Transportation Security Administration's traveler redress site found security problems with the government-sanctioned Web site, which have since been fixed.

(snip)

Investigators found one of the senior program managers at TSA who oversaw the launch of the redress site is a former employee of Desyne Web Services - the company that received the $48,816 contract to develop the site and continues to do business with TSA today. The employee is also a high school friend of the company's owner, according to the report.

Who in the world would feel comfortable giving this government absolutely unfettered control over every aspect of your life? Oh, nevermind.

I posted about this back on October 6th fer chrissakes. Seems the guy in charge declared every a-ok, right before he hit the exit for a well deserved retirement. Oopsy.

WASHINGTON - The fire-fighting system in the massive new $740 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is defective, according to documents obtained by McClatchy and U.S. officials, who allege that their concerns were ignored or overruled in a rush to declare the complex completed.

"As far as I know, nothing's been fixed," said one State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation for speaking to the news media. "The lives of the people who are working in that building are going to be at stake" if the complex doesn't meet building codes, he said.

Last month, 19 days before he retired, State Department buildings chief Charles E. Williams certified key parts of the embassy's fire-fighting system ready for operation, according to the documents McClatchy obtained.

How you can consider this anything but willful negligence is beyond me. It is made even worse by the fact that the company testing and to certify the safety measures is......

Moreover, Williams' thumbs-up was based on tests run by another contractor that was hired, not by the State Department, but by the company building the embassy, First Kuwaiti General Contracting and Trading Co. State Department officials, members of Congress and others have accused First Kuwaiti of shoddy construction and questionable labor practices.

So, months after many, many instances of malfeasance by FKGC they're still being given contracts for life and death inspections.

How bad does it have to get? This story is making the rounds today:

Omar Khalif, vice-president of the Iraqi Families Association (IFA), an NGO established in 2004 to register cases of those missing and trafficked, said that at least two children are sold by their parents every week. Another four are reported missing every week.

See how things have improved since we invaded?

He said: "[The] numbers are alarming. There is an increase of 20 per cent in the reported cases of missing children compared to last year."

"In previous years, children were reported missing on their way home from schools or after playing with friends outside their homes. However, police investigations have revealed that many have been sold by their parents to foreign couples or specialised gangs." 

According to police investigations and an independent IFA study, Iraqi children are being sold to families in many European countries - particularly the Netherlands and Sweden - Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

"Taking advantage of the desperate situation of many families living under poverty conditions in Iraq, foreigners offer a good amount of money in exchange of children as young as one-month old and up to five years of age," Khalif said.

He said there are fears children are being trafficked for the sex trade and the organ transplant black market.

Yes, we're fighting them over there so we don't have to...let our soldiers survive and prosper over here?

Violence did go down the second half of the year, however. And conservatives will triumphantly tell you. So if we keep adding to the number of troops there (while all our allies pull out) and institute a draft, perhaps we can keep violence down just enough for no political solution to be reached while we ignore domestic issues and keep averting our eyes from unimportant places like, say, Pakistan... 

The Pentagon, meanwhile, will increasingly look to the uneven Iraqi security forces to carry the load in 2008 as demands for an American exit strategy grow sharper during the U.S. election year.

Britain, the main U.S. coalition partner in Iraq, is gradually drawing down its forces and other allies, including Poland and Australia, are contemplating full-scale withdrawals in the coming year.

Groovy. Wait, I have another idea (besides sending in the entire editorial staff of The National Review). How about we just suit up more mercs, because their record has been so stellar!

Perhaps the next surge can be manned by the mercs of C.R.I., who appear in the cool video? They couldn't do any worse than Blackwater, CACI or Halliburton...

You can get more on this uplifting story here. 

Vice President Cheney is asked about the young American who was working in Iraq, who was drugged and gang raped by co-workers, then locked in a shipping container by her employer, KBR. 

Why no? You mean this government of complete propriety and their friends the war profiteers? Say it ain't so!

Here is a taste of a story that ought to make you sick:

A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after 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.

It gets worse, if you can believe it. You can go here for the rest if you can stomach it....