Jeffrey Bliss, former electrician for Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR) in Iraq, reveals the general incompetence of the contractor to the Senate.

 

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Cheryl Harris and Larraine McGee lost their two sons in Iraq, but they were not killed in combat; they were electrocuted because of faulty electrical equipment built and maintained by Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR) contractors. Before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, the mothers told their tragic stories about the reckless and complacent behavior of KBR employees that lead to their sons’ deaths. (more…)

In front of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, Charles M. Smith, former Head of Field Support Contracting, hightlights KBR’s main infractions, which were compounded by the DCAA. (2:25)

 

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Charles M. Smith revealed the incompetency of Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR), a contracting company in Iraq, and the failure of the Defense Contract Auditing Agency (DCAA) to remedy the situation. In front of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, Smith, former Chief of the Army Field Support Command Division, said he believes his questioning of KBR led to his termination. (more…)

Danny Langford, a former employee of Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), talks about the exposure to Sodium Dichromate he experienced working in Iraq and KBR’s lack of effort to protect its workers. (1:12)

 

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Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), the Chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, presided over a hearing on “The Exposure at Qarmat Ali: Contractor Misconduct and the Safety of U.S. Troops in Iraq.” Testimonies were presented on how Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) exposed its own workers, U.S. troops, British troops, and Iraqis to Sodium Dichromate, a highly toxic, cancer-causing chemical. Dorgan said that he could not believe the Bush Administration would block efforts to hold KBR accountable when the company knew that workers were being exposed to very dangerous chemicals. (more…)

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) says that it is “embarrassing” that Defense Department contractors in Iraq are paying their employees through shell companies in the Cayman Islands, thereby avoiding U.S. taxes. (1:00)

 

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Linda Warren, a former Halliburton/KBR employee in Iraq, says she witnessed looting and poor treatment of Iraqi employees by her co-workers and managers. When KBR security and the U.S. military inspected the quarters they found enough contraband to “fill a warehouse.” Warren says she had to be extracted from Baghdad the next day after the KBR office intercepted a threatening e-mail from one of her co-workers. (0:41)

 

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Frank Cassaday, a former KBR employee in Iraq, describes to the Senate Democratic Policy Committee some of the illegal activities and rule violations he witnessed by KBR managers and employees. He says the ice plant foreman kept ice from a convoy of U.S. Marines going out into the desert, so the foreman could give the ice to friends. (0:45)

 

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The Senate Democratic Policy Committee held a hearing today on “Contracting Abuses in Iraq: Is the Bush Administration Safeguarding American Taxpayer Dollars?” Chairman Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) said this was the thirteenth in a series of oversight hearings to examine contacting abuses in Iraq, such as inappropriate awarding of major contracts, unsubstantiated costs and overcharges, and delivery of unsafe water to the troops in Iraq. Dorgan wants to create a special committee in the U.S. Senate, modeled after the Truman Committee, to “exercise oversight over contracting abuses related to reconstruction and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
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