Happy 5th Anniversary: Defense Contractor's Wiring Linked to Electrocuting Troops In Iraq

By Matthew Blake 03/19/2008 06:15PM

The 5th Anniversary of the war in Iraq is an opportunity to revisit many unhappy storylines. One is the lack of accountability that can come with a war outsourced to private corporations.

Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) and Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) are investigating a report by the U.S. Marine Corps that at least 12 U.S. soldiers have died due to faulty wiring by private contractors in Army and Marine Corps base camps.

A letter by Waxman to Defense Secretary Robert Gates documents the grisly incident of Sgt. Ryan D. Meseth being fatally electrocuted in January while showering in his Baghdad compound. Waxman's letter says the problem of improperly grounding electrical water pumps was known since 2004. But a series of DoD private contractors hired to fix the problems apparently didn't.

KBR Inc., formerly Kellog Brown Root, was hired in 2007, to fix the pipe problems in the building were Mesbeth was killed. Altmire and Waxman are requesting that Gates investigate what KBR did do to honor its contract.

KBR, Inc. is the largest non-union construction company in the United States and the largest contractor in Iraq, with an estimated $16 billion in government deals. It is most famous for, until 2006, being a subsidiary of Haliburton -- the company that gave Dick Cheney a $34 million severance package when he became vice president. The Boston Globe recently reported that the Defense Dept. has known since 2004 that KBR, Inc. has been avoiding millions in Social Security and Medicare taxes by hiring workers through a shell company in the Cayman Islands. In fact, the Pentagon encouraged KBR, Inc. to hire employees through the Cayman Islands as a cost-saving measure.

It is unclear whether the continued occupation of Iraq will benefit either Americans or Iraqis. What is clear is that continuing the war means a steady stream of revenue for government contractors operating with inconsistent oversight by the U.S. and Iraq government.

Comments:

ajm8127
Posted 03/19/2008 09:49pm with

There is a four way intersection down the street from my house that only has stop signs two ways. It’s going to take a tragedy to make it a four way stop.

I think, I hope, that this utter lack of accountability and thus responsibility exhibited by these contractors will be the wake up call that is need to make people realize maybe some things shouldn’t be driven by the dollar.