The parents of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth are fighting to preserve their lawsuit against military contractor KBR, which is seeking to dismiss their wrongful death lawsuit. Maseth was one of a number of soldiers who died of electrocution in showers maintained by KBR. Rep. Jason Altmire is calling for an investigation, but he is only half right. Altmire and his colleagues should be holding hearings on the elimination of the Feres Doctrice, barring soldiers from suing the military in such cases.
KBR is seeking the dismissal on the basis that the case “raises inherently political questions involving… military policy level and tactical decision making … and the direction the military provided to KBR regarding needed repair work.” The Bush Administration has been holding back information on how many people have been injured or killed by such shoddy work by contractors.
KBR is also relying on the “combatant activities exemption” which “shields the U.S. government. For a discussion of the Feres Doctrine and its untold harm, click here and here and here.
KBR has been the subject of considerable public outcry over its billings, negligence, and even criminal conduct like rape by its employees, like here.
For the full story, click here.
Isn’t it time for KBR to answer for crimes it has committed against our own military people. Let’s not forget the constant overbilling stories that have been published. This is another area where Congress needs to grow a pair and get the KBR officials under oath and see what they will lie about under oath. This war profiteering may have been alright for Grandpa Prescott Bush, but it should be stopped in its tracks right here.
Well, gosh, rafflaw, if there’s no profit to be made on the invasion/occupation of Iraq, what’s the sense of being there?
I remember well hearing GWB warn a world reluctant to join him in his coalition-of-the-bribed that if they didn’t sign on they would be shut out of the anticipated lucrative spoils once the Iraqi Treasury was sacked and the oil revenues available for exploitation.
They privatized the entire supply chain at enormous additional costs to US taxpayers and then hired enough mercenaries (more specifically hired Blackwater who hires killers from all over the world) to equal the number of US soldiers. Except the mercenaries make 4x-10x a soldier’s pay.
Kudos to Rep Henry Waxman for beginning the daunting effort to shine some light of truth on these war profiteering cockroaches.
rcampbell,
You are right about the spoils of the Iraq War. I am also a big fan of Rep. Henry Waxman and his efforts to ferret out the truth from the Bush Administration.
I love your very appropriate use of the words “ferret” and “Bush Adminstration” in the same sentence.
Thanks to the GOP, who cheated and stole TWO elections to create a world class nightmare. Unfortunately, Americans are known to have a memory that doesn’t last longer than an orgasm. As soon as they experience a prosperity, they are ready to send GOP, the grim reaper, to create havoc all over again.
This is hardly the first time that KBR has tried to get away with murder. For a close look at how it’s claimed no responsibility for deaths on the job of its own employees, see: http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1201514750098