‘Iraq’ Archives
KBR’s ‘Blanket Insurance Waiver’ for Sub-Contractors
by David Phinney Jan 26, 2007 -- I finally received an official comment from the Department of Labor regarding KBR’s “blanket insurance waiver” after more than a month of requests. The spokesman, David James, said DOL has never seen the document and “I cannot comment on another company’s internal memorandum.” In other words, [...]
KBR Hands Out Medals to Contract Workers with “Quit Claim” to Liabilities
by David Phinney Jan. 26, 2007 -- Perhaps medals in defense of freedom aren't free, at least when it comes to KBR. At a Houston awards ceremony next month, KBR will be handing out Pentagon medals to its workers from Iraq who were injured in Iraq and elsewhere. All were supporting the military through the company's $16-billion-and-counting [...]
Kiss, Kiss from KBR to its “Employees” — Just Don’t Sue!
by David Phinney Jan. 25, 2007 -- The invitation goes something like this: Kellogg Brown and Root requests the pleasure of your company at an awards ceremony in honor of KBR employees to receive the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Defense of Freedom on Friday, the ninth of February at nine o'clock. Ballroom C, Hilton Post [...]
Bush’s State of the Union: Volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps?
I am a little curious about his idea for designing and establishing a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Sounds like a move to institutionalize the use of contractors on the battlefield: Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to [...]
News Media Does the Math on Contract Workers in Iraq
Major media is getting around to discussing the plight of the blue-collar workers coming home from jobs in Iraq. Mainstream corporate media plans to visit Jana Crowder's February 10 event in Knoxville, Tenn., to interview workers and their families about the liabilities of working in the crossfire of war. At one time, Iraq was touted as the new [...]
And the Oscar for Best Documentary Goes to…..
This is a tough one. Two outstanding docs are up for the nomination: Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and The War Tapes by Deborah Scranton and Chuck Lacy. Al Gore lucidly delivers an urgent warning about global warming in Inconvenient Truth that is jaw dropping in its punch. PLUS, there's an enormous appeal to the idea that a former Vice [...]
‘Deplorable’ Conditions for US Contract Laborers in Iraq
Just cleaning up my notes and found this inspection of a labor camp for the US Army dining facility at Camp Marez. Dated February 2005, most of the people living there were low-wage workers from the Philippines and Turkey. "Filthy" is the common word summarizing the housing where workers were kept under this multi-billion-dollar US contract held [...]
Congress Urged to Look at Labor Trafficking
GovExec reiterates POGO's press release today by outlining the group's 13 priorities for Congress in the coming session. Among those priorities, the often celebrated, self-appointed, Washington-based watchdog group, aka, the Project on Government Oversight, singles out labor trafficking under US contracts in Iraq: Highlighting a little-known [...]
Ouch!
From a December 12 Bill Moyers speech before a bunch of lefty groups gathering in New York sponsored by The Nation, Demos, the Brennan Center for Justice and the New Democracy Project: Democrats are ebullient as they prepare to take charge of the multitrillion-dollar influence racket that we used to call the US Congress. Let them rejoice while [...]
Shrinking Violets
They foresaw a New American Century and it was as if they planned to pump up US foreign policy with steady injections of steroids. ... Then again, maybe they just were metaphorically whacked out on the drug themselves. In their 1997 manifesto, they posed the question: "Does the United States have the resolve to shape a new century favorable to [...]
