Green Beret’s Death While Showering Tied to KBR’s Negligence
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In one of the saddest, and most infuriating pieces of bad news to emerge from Iraq to date, it turns out that a highly decorated, 24-year-old Green Beret died after being eloctrocuted while showering at his base in Iraq, due to shoddy electrical work performed at the base by former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, according to reports from today’s CNN News and NY Times. KBR is the largest U.S. contractor in Iraq.
The Penatagon has reported that 18 service men and women have been electrocuted in Iraq since 2003 due to faulty wiring. Army investigators, who initially classified the Green Beret’s death as a mere “accident,” have now begun viewing it as a negligent homicide.
In a related story, we learn, courtesy of the Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog, that the VA just paid $350,000 to settle a Federal Tort Claims Act suit by the family of an Iraqi War veteran who returned to the U.S. with post traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideations. The vet apparently received some psychiatric treatment at his local VA hospital, but was allegedly turned away at the time he needed help most–just before he hanged himself in his family’s garage.
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throckmorton said:
I forgot who originally said it, but the quote is something like “dont believe everything that you believe in newspapers!” There is a lot more to this than is reported. In fact it is reported to sensationalize something to distract from another.
As part of the plan to employ local Iraqi civillians, these bases were built by and managed by local Iraqi contractors. Specificationss were given but were altered to accomidate the need to use locals. As a result, structures were built by and to Iraqi standards. There were also inspected by Iraqi inspectors. KBR has some of the contracts for sensitive areas but not for the whole thing. The Iraqis use widow maker water heaters which are the reason for the electrocutions. We hired them and they built what they were used to.
It sells papers to report that KBR is there and to sensationalize the whole affair, but the problem lies in the fact that we used Iraqi’s and their standards.
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:37 pm