KBR is George Jr's choice for no-bid contracts. KBR properly reflects the attitude and knowledge of our leader. From the NY Times of 4 May 2008:
Quote:
Despite Alert, Flawed Wiring Still Kills G.I.'s
... the Army bulletin said that five deaths over the preceding year had apparently been caused by faulty grounding, and the circumstances of others have not been fully explained by the Army. Many more soldiers have been injured by shocks, Pentagon officials and soldiers say.
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Tens of thousands of grounds must be missing just to have one result in severe electric shock. Electrical grounds are so obvious and easy that it is almost impossible for any honest person to not connect one. Why do so many Americans still get killed? Good thing we saved so much money and therefore don't have all these debts to pay off.
Quote:
American electricians who worked for KBR ... said they repeatedly warned company managers and military officials about unsafe electrical work, which was often performed by poorly trained Iraqis and Afghans paid just a few dollars a day. ...
KBR itself told the Pentagon in early 2007 about unsafe electrical wiring at a base near the Baghdad airport, but no repairs were made. Less than a year later, a soldier was electrocuted in a shower there. ...
Lawmakers and government investigators say it is now clear that the Bush administration outsourced so much work to KBR and other contractors in Iraq that the agencies charged with oversight have been overwhelmed. The Defense Contracting Management Agency has more than 9,000 employees, but it has only 60 contract officers in Iraq and 30 in Afghanistan to supervise nearly 18,000 KBR employees in Iraq and 4,400 in Afghanistan handling base maintenance.
"All the contract officers can do is check the paperwork," ...
Staff Sgt. Christopher L. Everett, 23, of the Texas National Guard was electrocuted in September 2005 while power-washing a Humvee at Camp Taqaddum, in central Iraq near Falluja. ...
The most recent fatality occurred on Jan. 2 in Baghdad, when Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, a Green Beret, died in a shower after an improperly grounded water pump short-circuited.
Nearly a year earlier, KBR issued a technical report to the contracting agency citing safety concerns related to the grounding and wiring in the building in the Radwaniyah Palace Complex, where Sergeant Maseth's unit, the Army Fifth Special Forces Group, was housed.
Another soldier said in an interview that he was repeatedly shocked in the shower in December 2007 and submitted requests for repairs. But nothing was done until the day after Sergeant Maseth's death, when the defense agency ordered KBR to correct the problem, according to Pentagon documents.
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They are only soldiers - expendable? So lie to mask reality?
Quote:
Cheryl Harris, Sergeant Maseth's mother, said in an interview that the Army initially told her that her son had taken an electrical appliance into the shower with him. Later, she said, officials told her that investigators had found electrical wires hanging down around the shower. She said she had been skeptical of both accounts and learned the truth only after repeatedly questioning Army officials. ...
"I knew Ryan would not get into a shower with an electrical appliance, and having wires hanging overhead didn't make sense," said Ms. Harris, of Cranberry Township, Pa. "My biggest question is really, why would KBR do a safety inspection, know about the electrical problems and not alert the troops?" ...
In 2006, John McLain was working as a KBR electrician at the United States regional embassy compound in Hilla, south of Baghdad, when he made a disturbing discovery. A KBR quality control inspector had recently cited employees there for failing to file quarterly ground resistance testing logs - reports on whether the wiring in the upgraded embassy building was properly grounded and safe.
Mr. McLain soon realized that the testing was not being conducted, because the building had never been grounded, though KBR and at least one Iraqi subcontractor were supposed to install proper safeguards during a renovation the previous year. Mr. McLain said he had sent a series of increasingly blunt memos and e-mail warnings about the safety hazards to KBR officials.
Mr. McLain said other KBR electricians later created logs that incorrectly made it appear that the grounding system existed. KBR fired him in 2007 after he told a visiting defense contracting agency official about his concerns. His candor proved useless, however. Mr. McLain said that the contracting agency official showed no interest. "He said, I'm not an electrician; I don't know what you are talking about," Mr. McLain recalled.
Noris Rogers, who worked for KBR in Afghanistan in 2005, said he repeatedly complained to his supervisors that electrical work at Camp Eggers, the American military's command base in Kabul, Afghanistan, did not meet the requirements of the company's Pentagon contract.
Mr. Bliss, who saw a soldier in Qalat, Afghanistan, get a severe shock from an electrical box that was not supposed to be charged, said his KBR bosses mocked him for raising safety issues.
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Safety grounding is so easy, so obvious, so standard, so simply, and so difficult to get wrong .,. So why does grounding not get done? It’s easier to not do it - but only when top bosses hold nobody responsible or are also on the take. Why does George Jr so often reward KBR - Cheney's company - with so many no-bid contracts? |
